Five Major Landmark Occurrences in the Assault on the Rights of Females in the Past Year.

A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The torrent and swiftness of administrative decrees issued from the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this merely marked the opening act.

The Washington leadership has been the central catalyst, bolstered by relentless activism by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.

The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This encompasses reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.

We look at five episodes that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In the month of March, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration states that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm 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 follow with their own cuts. 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 upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit 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 celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse 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 heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, 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 scale of their presence has increased markedly.

American Plan to Burn Birth Control

As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.