A Quintet of Landmark Occurrences in the Attack on the Rights of Females in This Past Year.

In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives originating in the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.

The US administration has been the main instigator, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.

This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We examine five moments that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing international chaos, a leading figure in the administration states that over eighty percent of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, predicting that mortality will increase. Activists say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.

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 in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they welcome new Washington directives on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding 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 sparks alarm among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, 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 a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “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”. Aid groups propose purchasing 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.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, 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. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.