Five Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations using the moment to forge international alliances with political allies.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five instances that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, predicting that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, 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 national leader and spouse open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. 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 an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
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 July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent 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 forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, 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 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 expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
