Five Critical Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The torrent and swiftness of White House mandates issued from the White House were seen as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But that was just the beginning.
The American government has been the central catalyst, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations using the moment to strengthen global ties with political allies.
This opposition to progressive rights denotes an international coalition of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine advances on numerous fronts. 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 push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.
We analyze five instances that affected the welfare, autonomy, and survival of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, six weeks after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing widespread distress, a top American diplomat states that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, past leaders and relief and public health authorities condemn the news, 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 birth control and maternal healthcare. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm 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. Another pair of leading funders follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several Christian-right organisations meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they celebrate shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among rights advocates. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly to combat what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another continental gathering on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, 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 “a calculated move to control fertility”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which cuts American funding 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 policy was restored in January. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include governments and multilateral organisations 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 widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
