Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of presidential directives coming out of the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.

The US administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.

The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

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

We review five moments that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.

The Dismantling of USAID

In early spring, shortly after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically 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 high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.