Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Challenge to the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.

In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates emanating from the White House were interpreted as a deliberate tactic to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.

The American government has been the key driver, complemented by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.

The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. These include pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.

They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.

We review five moments that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.

USAID Effectively Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists condemn the news, stating that people will die as a result. Rights defenders say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by reduced funding, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates 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. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.

Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting

In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud changes in American foreign policy 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 venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In May, a head of state and partner open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. 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 refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for 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 expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Pro-choice activists fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.