🔗 Share this article Five Crucial Incidents in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year. A year ago, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor. The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes. This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction. They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations. We look at five moments that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of females globally. The Demise of a Major Aid Agency In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda. Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with 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 optimistic frame of mind as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world. Summits Promoting Conservative Norms Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households 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 level of external participation has expanded considerably. American Plan to Burn Birth Control As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization 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 dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated. ‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates issued from the White House were viewed as a deliberate tactic to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor. The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes. This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction. They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations. We look at five moments that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of females globally. The Demise of a Major Aid Agency In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official states that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda. Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with 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 optimistic frame of mind as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world. Summits Promoting Conservative Norms Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households 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 level of external participation has expanded considerably. American Plan to Burn Birth Control As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization 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 dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated. ‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected 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 expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.