Five Major Significant Developments in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Year 2025.
In the previous year, feminist advocacy groups were steeling themselves against a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders issued from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to compensate for the loss left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the main instigator, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with political allies.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They accomplish their goals by pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five episodes that influenced the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is suspended, causing international chaos, a senior US official confirms that nearly all of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, past leaders and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, cautioning that lives will be lost. Activists say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. 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 shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, 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 urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in West Africa, an event that health activists say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization 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 imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Reinstating the Mexico City Policy, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on 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 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 cover diversity programmes. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A expert in child welfare says widening the scope will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
