A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of White House mandates issued from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.

The US administration has been the primary force, supported by vigorous campaigning by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with ideological partners.

The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.

We examine five junctures that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, stating that fatalities will ensue. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the poison of patriarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, 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 “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.