Five Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The flood and velocity of White House mandates issued from the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to overwhelm and create panic. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to compensate for the loss left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But the situation was about to worsen.
The American government has been the main instigator, complemented by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.
The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They do this by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five instances that impacted the welfare, autonomy, and survival of women and girls.
USAID Dismantled
In the month of March, six weeks after a key American development organization is its funds are blocked, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat reveals that nearly all of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, warning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, 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 reduced funding, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a choice to reduce international development funding is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
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 UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an forum to discuss methods on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they celebrate changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women 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 equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A shortly thereafter, another Pan-African conference on family values is held. Both events are participated in by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a European depot. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent 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 exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization 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 in deadlock as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which cuts American funding for groups that offer, promote, or give information about abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. 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 sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. More details on the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “catastrophic impacts”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.
