Five Major Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
Twelve months prior, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of White House mandates emanating from the White House were viewed as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to forge international alliances with ideological partners.
The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as affluent financiers and clans that aim to roll back gains in a variety of areas. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They do this by lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five junctures that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official confirms that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations 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.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they applaud new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among human rights defenders. In May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including presidents of prominent organizations. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to dispose of a vast stockpile of birth control held in a European depot. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as host nation officials are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is typical of certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
