Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in This Past Year.

In the previous year, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of White House mandates emanating from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this merely marked the opening act.

The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, supported by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with political allies.

The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We review five episodes that influenced the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. 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 move to appease a political ally.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood 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 venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has increased markedly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny countless females from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reviving the global gag rule, 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 ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.