Five Key Moments in the Challenge to the Rights of Females in This Past Year.
This time last year, women’s rights organisations were steeling themselves against a new Trump administration. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The volume and speed of executive orders issued from the White House were interpreted as a intentional maneuver to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was confusion, anger and exhaustion as agencies hastened to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But that was just the beginning.
The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, supported by relentless activism by religious fundamentalist networks capitalizing on the climate to strengthen global ties with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement refers to a global network of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle forward movement on multiple topics. These include reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five junctures that affected the security, respect, and well-being of girls and women.
The Demise of a Major Aid Agency
In the month of March, shortly after a major US aid agency is halted, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration announces that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, predicting that mortality will increase. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm 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. Additional key contributing countries follow with their own cuts. A director of a global justice organization 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 March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening established norms on core aspects of gender equality around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a cluster of meetings in Africa centered on the conventional household and state autonomy triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label external influences undermining local norms. A few days later, another regional summit on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading American and European conservative activists, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As medical centers in numerous African countries report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including prophylaxis for assault victims, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about forcing a conservative worldview globally” and “a calculated move to control fertility”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains at a standstill as the regional government are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
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 was widely expected when the policy was restored in January. The administration also reaffirmed membership in a pro-life declaration. But in October, the US announces it intends to broaden the scope of the policy to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. More details on the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “unimaginable effects”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the expanded global gag.
