Five Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Scarcely anyone expected. The volume and speed of executive orders originating in the White House were regarded as a deliberate tactic to induce a state of shock. This strategy had its intended impact – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations using the moment to solidify transnational relationships with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. 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 promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We review five instances that impacted the security, respect, and well-being of women and girls.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, a month and a half following a key American development organization is suspended, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat confirms that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, former presidents and relief and public health authorities criticize the move, stating that fatalities will ensue. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say women and girls will be disproportionately affected by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, reports confirm how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a report shows that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa centered on the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among rights advocates. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to resist what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A shortly thereafter, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of international organizations. In the following month, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are running out of contraceptives, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in July 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 access to birth control, 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 prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government are blocking usable products to be destroyed.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the expanded global gag.