A Quintet of Key Moments in the Rollback of the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.
Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were anticipating a second Trump term. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to induce a state of shock. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as organisations scrambled to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The Washington leadership has been the key driver, bolstered by fervent lobbying efforts by ultra-conservative groups capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with political allies.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that work to dismantle advances on numerous fronts. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five junctures that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a prominent humanitarian funder is halted, causing widespread distress, a senior US official announces that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and humanitarian and health experts denounce the action, cautioning that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held alongside the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in high spirits as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the women’s summit with a stark warning that “the venom of male dominance” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are actively undermining longstanding consensus on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence sparks alarm among equality campaigners. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are graced by leading American and European conservative activists, including heads of influential networks. One speaker calls on African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of international organizations. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has expanded considerably.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive countless females from family planning options, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an politically-motivated move “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government will not allow the destruction of viable medicines.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, 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 anticipated when the ban was reimposed in January. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, 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 include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Additional information regarding the broader enforcement are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that new US aid packages being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.
