Five Critical Crucial Incidents in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were regarded as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the primary force, supported by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to strengthen global ties with ideological partners.
This opposition to progressive rights refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. This encompasses abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five episodes that shaped the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a key American development organization is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. American foreign service officers, former presidents and relief and public health authorities decry the decision, predicting that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, evidence indicates how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
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 two-day conference held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding historic agreements 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 triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a large assembly to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In the following month, a global faith group hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their destruction will deny a huge female population from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
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 reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
