Five Landmark Occurrences in the Erosion of the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were anticipating a Trump presidency sequel. Few were prepared for. The sheer number and rapid pace of executive orders emanating from the White House were seen as a premeditated approach to cause confusion and fear. To a large extent, it succeeded – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to fill the gap left by a major funding freeze. But that was just the beginning.
The Trump administration has been the key driver, complemented by relentless activism by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to build worldwide connections with ideological partners.
Often termed the anti-gender movement signifies a transnational grouping of elected officials, faith-based bodies, non-governmental organisations as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle progress across a wide spectrum of issues. This covers abortion, LGBTQ rights, trans rights, non-traditional family structures and comprehensive sexuality education.
They achieve this through pressuring states, backing lawsuits, disparaging UN work to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.
We look at five episodes that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of the female population.
USAID Effectively Dismantled
In the month of March, shortly after a key American development organization is suspended, causing widespread distress, a leading figure in the administration confirms that a vast majority of the body's projects will be terminated. Career diplomats, ex-presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, stating that lives will be lost. Activists say that the demise of the agency is more than a funding crisis, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and family planning and reproductive care. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in conflict areas. As the year ends, data shows how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from illness, famine, inadequate obstetric services, and violence against women, with millions more to come. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is an attempt to placate a powerful partner.
Christian-Right Groups Raise Voices During UN Women Summit
In March, several Christian-right organisations meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a two-day conference held in parallel with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud changes in American foreign policy on social issues and termination of pregnancy. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the gender equality forum with a somber alert that “the toxin of gendered hierarchy” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening historic agreements on key women’s rights issues around the world.
African ‘Family Values’ Conferences
Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the traditional family and national sovereignty triggers anxiety among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a head of state and partner open a significant conference to resist what they label overseas agendas corrupting societal morals. A soon after, another Pan-African conference on conservative ethics is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including heads of influential networks. One speaker urges African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of global institutions. In June, a major religious institution hosts a gathering about supporting traditional households in the region, an event that reproductive rights advocates say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Advocates remark that the level of external participation has increased markedly.
US Threat to Destroy Contraceptives
As health facilities across 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 destroy a vast stockpile of birth control held in a warehouse in Europe. A major reproductive health federation states that their destruction will deny millions of women and girls from access to birth control, and lead to a surge in unplanned pregnancies and dangerous terminations. The organization labels the plan an ideological decision “about imposing an anti-rights agenda on the entire world” and “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. 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 refuses all offers. The situation remains unresolved as local authorities are blocking perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.
Widening of the Anti-Abortion Policy
Reviving the global gag rule, which prohibits Washington's support for groups that offer, promote, or give information about 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 the autumn, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the expansion of the rule are likely forthcoming. A expert in child welfare says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Reproductive justice campaigners fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being negotiated with countries in Africa will become dependent on agreeing to the broadened restrictions.
