A Quintet of Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Females in the Past Year.

This time last year, feminist advocacy groups were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The sheer number and rapid pace of presidential directives coming out of the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.

The US administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by intense advocacy work by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.

Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

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

We review five episodes that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of the female population.

The Dismantling of USAID

In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, predicting that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. 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 move to appease a political ally.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel 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 defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking 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 standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. 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 encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.