For example, the green bandanas started as a symbol for abortion rights in Argentina, but today people wearing green bandanas protest about people who were women and wine drinking limits forcibly disappeared, or militarization in Mexico. It gives me hope that we have a connected community of women in solidarity with each other. Trump’s views on what he calls “gender ideology,” a term long used by opponents of women’s and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, is based on a denial of the right to autonomy. The new administration has also sought to redefine sex as strictly male or female and fixed at birth, jeopardizing access to education, healthcare, and other federally funded services for transgender women and girls. This type of violence is suffered by millions of women and girls around the world, yet it isn’t seen as a problem. It happens consistently because health care policies often deprioritize women and girls.
Dress Restrictions Tighten for Afghanistan Girls’ Schools
- For example, Black women are much more likely to die from preventable causes like cervical cancer.
- Some countries are developing guidelines and laws against obstetric violence, and there are decisions by human rights courts and UN bodies against countries for their responsibility in obstetric violence.
- The Trump administration could greatly impact the rights of women in the workplace.
- There’s a high risk of abortion rights being rolled back even further.
Some people say we don’t have to take what Trump says at face value, but I think we do. And if we listen to what he says, we should be concerned about the significant impact on women’s rights his second administration could have. 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is a key international moment to call for an end to violence against women and girls (VAWG). It runs from 25th November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) until 10th December, Human Rights Day.
- In July, the UK announced a policy change, introducing a route to allow some Afghans to reunite with their families who were evacuated to the UK after August 2021.
- So, if only men are in the room, the experience of half of the population may be ignored.
- It runs from 25th November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) until 10th December, Human Rights Day.
- Violence against women remains a global crisis, severely impacting their health and well-being.
Migrants and Refugees Health film prize
Around the world today, prolonged and intense conflicts have resulted in a continuous rise in of all forms of gender-based violence. To achieve this, health systems must prioritize women’s and girls’ health needs and their full participation in the workforce. By creating opportunities for women to participate equally at every level, including in decision making, we can transform health systems, bridge gender gaps, and build a healthier, more equitable world. Now is the time to turn the commitments of the Beijing Declaration into action and ensure that both women’s health needs and their advancement in the workforce drive lasting, transformative change. Well-functioning health systems are the foundation of gender equality. When health care is accessible, equitable, and responsive, women and girls in all their diversity can live healthier lives and have equal opportunities beyond health.
Afghanistan: ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Senior Taliban Leaders
The coming years may also include attempts by the White House through Congress to undermine public health insurance programs like Medicaid, which tens of millions of women with low incomes rely on to pay for health care. The scale of conflict around the world is troubling, and the huge incidence of sexual violence in conflict makes it even more of a tragedy. Elsewhere in Latin America, Chile has a new comprehensive law against gender-based violence. Importantly, the law includes “non-sexist education” as a component in combatting sexual violence.
Measuring violence
However, serious problems with the UK’s relocation and resettlement programs have meant that, three years on, many at-risk Afghans including women and girls, have no safe pathway to resettlement in the UK. For example, the Comstock Act, from 1873, is a law that prohibits mailing “obscene” materials. But some conservative groups are talking about urging the Trump administration to begin enforcing the Comstock Act and prosecuting people, including doctors, who mail or receive abortion pills. By arresting women and girls for alleged “bad hijab,” the Taliban impose physical and psychological violence, aiming for systematic erasure of women’s autonomy and total female obedience. It describes the overwhelming oppression women and girls face under Taliban rule.
Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence survivors
The US president has broad powers to appoint federal judges, not just the justices to the Supreme Court, who since his first term have repeatedly issued rulings that harm women’s rights. There’s been lots of talk about the lack of guardrails that would keep the executive under check, which we will be looking at very closely. Democracy cannot function without effective checks and balances, and women’s rights erode quickly without them. We are working with local organizations in Africa and Latin America to see how we can move forward on this issue. Some countries are developing guidelines and laws against obstetric violence, and there are decisions by human rights courts and UN bodies against countries for their responsibility in obstetric violence.
In August, the Taliban announced a new law on promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, which prohibits women from traveling or using public transportation without a male guardian. Under the law, women and girls are required to cover their faces in public and are prohibited from singing in public or letting their voices be heard outside the house. Abortion bans and restrictions have disproportionately harmed those already facing systemic barriers to care, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, people with low incomes, and people under 18. As Taliban abuses escalate, the international community has too often responded with silence, or even harmful steps to normalize these abuses, such as Russia’s recent decision to become the sole country recognizing the Taliban. The arrests deepen the Taliban’s enforcement of their outrageous August 2024 “vice and virtue” decree requiring women to completely cover their bodies, including their faces, in public at all times.
Under the Biden administration, the FDA has already been fighting to keep mifepristone available without new restrictions. But Trump could appoint a new head of the FDA, even though the current commissioner should stay in place until 2026. In the US, 63 percent of abortions are done in the first trimester with medication.
The administration is also trying to bring its ideological crusade against DEI to the United Nations and its agencies, demanding that they follow the Trump administration’s example. But giving into these demands would undermine the rights of women, girls, and LGBT people around the world. Since July 16, the Taliban have arrested dozens of women and girls in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, for allegedly violating Taliban dress codes. The slew of arrests mark yet another continuation of the Taliban’s relentless attack on women’s autonomy, causing fear and intimidation for women and girls across Afghanistan. In July, the UK announced a policy change, introducing a route to allow some Afghans to reunite with their families who were evacuated to the UK after August 2021.
To address the root causes of sexual violence, we have to educate children without using gender stereotypes and address social and cultural practices that enforce the idea that one gender is superior to another. Sexual and gender-based violence is still normalized in many spaces, and it’s through non-sexist education that young people can learn what consent means and what healthy sexual relationships look like. To create truly equitable and effective health systems, women must be at the forefront – not just as caregivers but as leaders and decision-makers. Their leadership can drive systemic change, from advancing gender-responsive policies to securing investments in women’s health research. WHO reaffirms its commitment to championing these efforts, pushing for policies, funding, and research that ensure meaningful and lasting impact. We can expect issues on health care beyond abortion and contraception.
Also, it’s important to remember that fighting for women’s rights means you’re fighting authoritarianism. It’s often authoritarian governments, or those backsliding into authoritarianism, that take women’s rights away. But women’s access to health care and living a life free from violence is good for everyone.
Taliban edicts violated the rights of women and girls to education, employment, freedom of movement and expression. The Taliban have also dismantled protections for women and girls experiencing gender-based violence, created discriminatory barriers to their accessing health care, and barred them from playing sports and visiting parks. Strict hijab and mahram (male guardian) regulations have impeded women from traveling for work or to receive medical treatment. They also organize for freedom of expression, economic rights, and democracy.
