Five Pivotal Events in the Assault on the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
A year ago, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of administrative decrees issued from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, complemented by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They achieve this through lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five moments that affected the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Summits Promoting Conservative Norms
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
