Five Critical Pivotal Events in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The flood and velocity of administrative decrees originating in the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.

The American government has been the primary force, aided by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups using the moment to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.

This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.

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

We analyze five moments that shaped the protection, honor, and existence of females globally.

The Dismantling of USAID

In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, predicting that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit

In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is back, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated 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 broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations 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 widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.