Five Major Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in the Past Year.
This time last year, groups dedicated to gender equality were preparing for a new Trump administration. Few were prepared for. The volume and speed of executive orders issued from the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. This strategy had its intended impact – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as networks struggled to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor.
The American government has been the main instigator, bolstered by vigorous campaigning by far-right organisations capitalizing on the climate to build worldwide connections with like-minded governments.
The movement against gender equality signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that aim to roll back progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They accomplish their goals by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five instances that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
USAID Dismantled
In early spring, a month and a half following a key American development organization is frozen, causing global disruption, a leading figure in the administration reveals that the lion's share of the agency’s programmes will be eliminated. US diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists decry the decision, warning that mortality will increase. Activists say that the closure of the organization is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a savage attack on human rights and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by shrinking assistance, 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 many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations follow with their own cuts. A leader of an international advocacy group says a choice to reduce international development funding is a move to appease a political ally.
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 biannual gathering held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are deliberately weakening established norms on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the warmer months, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a large assembly to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on traditional morals 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 push back against “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in West Africa, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.
Contraceptive Destruction Order
As health facilities across Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including post-rape care packages, the US announces in midsummer plans to dispose of millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from contraceptive supplies, and lead to a public health crisis of unwanted pregnancies. 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 prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can fulfill their original purpose, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
‘Global Gag Rule’ Expanded
Reviving the global gag rule, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is standard practice for certain US administrations. It was anticipated when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. Further specifics about the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A director of a major health partnership says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
