Five Major Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of presidential directives originating in the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the key driver, aided by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with political allies.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration confirms that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, stating that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue 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 oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
