Five Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.

In the previous year, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees issued from the White House were seen as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.

The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, complemented by intense advocacy work by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.

The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five instances that affected the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration reveals that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

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 incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to 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 signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.