A Quintet of Key Moments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The sheer number and rapid pace of White House mandates emanating from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.

The American government has been the key driver, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions using the moment to strengthen global ties with like-minded governments.

This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as affluent financiers and clans that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five episodes that affected the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In early spring, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing global disruption, a senior US official announces that over eighty percent of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former 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 not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. 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.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa centered on the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

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 dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

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 typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.