Five Major Crucial Incidents in the Erosion of the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.

Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The flood and velocity of presidential directives coming out of the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.

The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, complemented by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with political allies.

The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We look at five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.

USAID Dismantled

In early spring, shortly after a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, cautioning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network 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 March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.

Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa

Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate 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 millions of women and girls 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 international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored 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 sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are likely forthcoming. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.