Five Critical Landmark Occurrences in the Erosion of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were bracing themselves for a new Trump administration. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders issued from the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout 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 central catalyst, supported by intense advocacy work by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
Often termed the anti-gender movement refers to a global network of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that aim to roll back forward movement on multiple topics. Areas targeted involve access to termination, gay and trans protections, alternative households, and factual sexual instruction.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities.
We review five episodes that affected the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is halted, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration reveals that over eighty percent of the body's projects will be terminated. US diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that mortality will increase. Rights defenders say that the closure of the organization is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. A multitude of agencies say females will bear the brunt by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, statistics reveal how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Two other major donor nations proceed with parallel slashes. 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.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a strategic summit held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is returning, after a study indicates that anti-rights actors are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are attended by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to push back against “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a global faith group hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the extent of foreign involvement has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As medical centers in numerous African countries 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 incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A renowned doctors' group calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government refuse to permit usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which cuts American funding for groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It came as no surprise when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being negotiated with countries in Africa will become contingent upon adopting the broadened restrictions.
