Five Defining Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of White House mandates coming out of the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, supported by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They achieve this through advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We review five episodes that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
