A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of White House mandates emanating from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with political allies.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We examine five instances that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat confirms that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, warning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In early May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
