Five Critical Landmark Occurrences in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

A year ago, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives emanating from the White House were viewed as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.

The Washington leadership has been the primary force, aided by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with political allies.

The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We examine five episodes that affected the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts decry the decision, warning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in conflict areas. 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 follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. 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 the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under 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 broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.