Five Key Moments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of White House mandates originating in the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the primary force, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We look at five instances that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a senior US official confirms that the lion's share of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts condemn the news, warning that lives will be lost. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates 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 leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a strategic summit held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that opponents of gender equality are actively undermining historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals 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 stand up to “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 pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. 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”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in January. 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 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 anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
