A Quintet of Pivotal Events in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were interpreted as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.
The US administration has been the central catalyst, bolstered by relentless activism by ultra-conservative groups exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with political allies.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five moments that impacted the protection, honor, and existence of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat confirms that a vast majority of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, predicting that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and family planning and reproductive care. Numerous groups 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 hundreds of thousands of people have already died from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering 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 buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among equality campaigners. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking the destruction of viable medicines.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the ban was reimposed in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
