A Quintet of Significant Developments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives originating in the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, supported by intense advocacy work by deeply conservative factions using the moment 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 seek to undermine gains in a variety of areas. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We review five episodes that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat announces that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. 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 upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held in parallel 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 high spirits as they applaud new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
