Five Critical Significant Developments in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in the Past Year.

A year ago, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of presidential directives coming out of 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 freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.

The US administration has been the key driver, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.

This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.

They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We analyze five moments that shaped the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.

USAID Dismantled

In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. US diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, predicting that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a move to cut foreign aid drastically 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 two-day conference held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat 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 leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.

US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives

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 incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a European depot. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.

Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding 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 policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.