Five Defining Significant Developments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
A year ago, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The volume and speed of executive orders emanating from the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to plug the hole left by a sudden aid suspension. But this merely marked the opening act.
The Trump administration has been the central catalyst, supported by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with like-minded governments.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. These include abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We analyze five instances that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, warning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a two-day conference held concurrently with the international conference on women's rights. 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 celebrate new Washington directives on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the women’s summit with a somber alert 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.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A few days later, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive a huge female population from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
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 came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in the autumn, 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. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.
