Five Defining Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Females in the Year 2025.

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 administrative decrees originating in the White House were seen as a calculated strategy to paralyze through overload. The tactic proved effective – there was chaos, resentment, and burnout as organisations scrambled to fill the gap left by a freeze on international development funds. But that was just the beginning.

The US administration has been the primary force, complemented by relentless activism by far-right organisations seizing the opportunity to solidify transnational relationships with ideological partners.

The anti-rights movement denotes an international coalition of policymakers, doctrinal establishments, and activist outfits as well as billionaire families and individuals that work to dismantle gains in a variety of areas. This covers reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They pursue this agenda via lobbying governments, supporting court cases, discrediting international efforts to promote fairness, circulating falsehoods, and resourcing aligned NGOs.

We analyze five moments that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of girls and women.

The Dismantling of USAID

In March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is suspended, causing global disruption, a top American diplomat announces that the lion's share of the organization's initiatives will be axed. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, cautioning that people will die as a result. Human rights advocates say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a savage attack on human rights and birth control and maternal healthcare. A multitude of agencies say the impact on girls and women will be severe by shrinking assistance, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, statistics reveal how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from sickness, hunger, poor pregnancy healthcare, and abuse targeting females, with many more millions at risk. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. A head of a worldwide campaign network says a decision to slash billions in overseas assistance is a gesture of alignment with another government's agenda.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In the same month, several faith-based advocacy networks meet in an high-end hotel in NYC for a biannual gathering held in parallel with the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they applaud shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the world's top diplomat opens the women’s summit with a somber alert that “the poison of patriarchy” is returning, after a report shows that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues around the world.

Summits Promoting Conservative Norms

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a significant conference to resist what they label external influences undermining local norms. A shortly thereafter, another continental gathering on family values is held. Both events are attended by leading Western campaigners against gender ideology, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker exhorts African NGOs to push back against “radical global social engineering” of multilateral bodies. In the following month, a major religious institution hosts a family strengthening conference in the region, an event that pro-choice campaigners say has become a stage for criticizing gender equality. Campaigners note that the level of external participation has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As clinics in sub-Saharan Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in July plans to destroy millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a warehouse in Europe. A global sexual health network 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 dogmatic choice “about exporting a regressive policy worldwide” and “a deliberate form of reproductive oppression”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can reach their intended destinations, but the US rejects each bid. The situation remains in deadlock as the regional government refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

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 October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include sovereign states and UN agencies in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are anticipated next year. A director of a major health partnership says extending the reach will have “devastating consequences”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being discussed with African nations will become dependent on agreeing to the expanded global gag.