A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.
The US administration has been the key driver, complemented by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We analyze five instances that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, six weeks after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, predicting that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization 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 Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on key women’s rights issues 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 raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
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 came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
