Five Defining Significant Developments in the Attack on the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a return of Donald Trump to office. The ensuing chaos was largely unforeseen. The torrent and swiftness of presidential directives issued from the White House were viewed as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. This strategy had its intended impact – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as networks struggled to address the shortfall left by a sudden aid suspension. But the situation was about to worsen.
The US administration has been the main instigator, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by religious fundamentalist networks seizing the opportunity to build worldwide connections with political allies.
The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken advances on numerous fronts. Areas targeted involve 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 promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We examine five junctures that affected the safety, dignity and lives of females globally.
The Dismantling of USAID
In early spring, a month and a half following a major US aid agency is frozen, causing international chaos, a top American diplomat announces that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. Career diplomats, former presidents and aid and medical specialists criticize the move, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the closure of the organization is not just a financial shortfall, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in war zones. As the year ends, data shows how hundreds of thousands of people have already died from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with millions more to come. Additional key contributing countries proceed with parallel slashes. A leader of an international advocacy group says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Conservative Religious Groups Lobby at UN Women Meeting
In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held concurrently with the UN's flagship gender equality meeting. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in optimistic frame of mind as they applaud shifts in US policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations opens the gender equality forum with a stark warning that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
Conferences on Traditional Values in Africa
Over the summer, a series of conferences in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among rights advocates. In May, a national leader and spouse open a significant conference to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another regional summit on conservative ethics is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to resist “international liberal agenda” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in an African nation, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.
American Plan to Burn Birth Control
As health facilities across Africa report they are running out of contraceptives, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to hundreds of thousands of unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “callous and reckless”. Aid groups propose purchasing the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities will not allow usable products to be destroyed.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
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 came as no surprise when the rule was reinstated in the first month of the year. The administration also rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.