Five Critical Significant Developments in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
In the previous year, organisations advocating for women's rights were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as networks struggled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the primary force, bolstered by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping 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. These include access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They accomplish their goals by influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five junctures that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, shortly after a key American development organization is halted, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that a vast majority of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and humanitarian and health experts criticize the move, predicting that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the demise of the agency is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in buoyant mood as they celebrate shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a head of state and partner open a large assembly 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 graced by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to stand up to “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
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 midsummer plans to dispose of 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 contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an dogmatic choice “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”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains at a standstill as host nation officials will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy 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 expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “catastrophic impacts”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that new US aid packages being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the broadened restrictions.
