Five Critical Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates coming out of the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the primary force, supported by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They achieve this through influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We look at five junctures that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, six weeks after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, stating that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, 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 shrinking assistance, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries initiate similar reductions. A leader of an international advocacy group 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 March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy 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 broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
