Five Major Significant Developments in the Rollback of the Freedoms of Women and Girls in This Past Year.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were steeling themselves against a Trump presidency sequel. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees emanating from the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to induce a state of shock. The tactic proved effective – there was disarray, outrage, and weariness as organisations scrambled to plug the hole left by a freeze on international development funds. But this was only the precursor.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, complemented by relentless activism by far-right organisations exploiting the situation to forge international alliances with sympathetic regimes.
The anti-rights movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as affluent financiers and clans that seek to undermine progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching.
They pursue this agenda via advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to advance equality, spreading disinformation, and funding non-profit organisations.
We analyze five moments that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In March, shortly after a major US aid agency is suspended, causing turmoil around the world, a leading figure in the administration confirms that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, past leaders and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that lives will be lost. Human rights advocates say that the demise of the agency is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say the impact on girls and women will be severe by diminishing aid, especially in conflict areas. 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 millions more to come. Another pair of leading funders proceed with parallel slashes. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a move to appease a political ally.
Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference
In March, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an luxury Manhattan venue for a two-day conference held alongside the annual UN Women gathering. It is an opportunity to share tactics on how to counter the UN's progressive policies. They are in high spirits as they celebrate new Washington directives on gender, diversity and abortion. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is resurgent, after a study indicates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on fundamental freedoms for women around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the summer, a cluster of meetings in Africa focused on the conservative family structures and national independence triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to push back on what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A few days later, another Pan-African conference on traditional morals is held. Both events are graced by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker urges African NGOs to resist “radical global social engineering” of international organizations. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Advocates remark that the extent of foreign involvement has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are depleting their stocks of family planning supplies, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to incinerate a vast stockpile of birth control held in a storage facility in Belgium. A leading family planning organization states that their elimination will deprive millions of women and girls from family planning options, 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 “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “heartless and dangerous”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains unresolved as the regional government will not allow perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Broader Restrictions on Aid
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 rejoined an international anti-abortion agreement. But in the autumn, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to cover diversity programmes. More details on the policy's widened application are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Pro-choice activists fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become conditional on accepting the new, wider policy.
