🔗 Share this article Five Major Crucial Incidents in the Assault on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025. A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor. The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, complemented by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with ideological partners. The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching. They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities. We look at five episodes that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of females globally. The Demise of a Major Aid Agency In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, warning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. 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 conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world. Summits Promoting Conservative Norms Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably. Contraceptive Destruction Order 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 midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, 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 “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated. Broader Restrictions on Aid Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.
A year ago, organisations advocating for women's rights were preparing for a second Trump term. Hardly anyone anticipated. The sheer number and rapid pace of administrative decrees coming out of the White House were regarded as a premeditated approach to paralyze through overload. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as groups rushed to plug the hole left by a major funding freeze. But this was only the precursor. The Washington leadership has been the main instigator, complemented by vigorous campaigning by ultra-conservative groups seizing the opportunity to forge international alliances with ideological partners. The movement against gender equality refers to a global network of government figures, churches, and advocacy collectives as well as wealthy philanthropists and dynasties that strive to weaken progress across a wide spectrum of issues. Areas targeted involve pro-choice policies, equality for sexual minorities, gender identity recognition, and inclusive relationship teaching. They pursue this agenda via influencing policymakers, funding litigation, undermining global initiatives to foster equity, propagating misinformation, and bankrolling sympathetic charities. We look at five episodes that influenced the safety, dignity and lives of females globally. The Demise of a Major Aid Agency In the month of March, six weeks after a prominent humanitarian funder is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a top American diplomat reveals that the lion's share of the institution's work will be scrapped. American foreign service officers, former presidents and aid and medical specialists denounce the action, warning that fatalities will ensue. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is greater than a budgetary issue, it is a vicious offensive against basic liberties and birth control and maternal healthcare. Numerous groups say females will bear the brunt by diminishing aid, especially in regions of instability. As the year ends, reports confirm how a significant mortality toll has been exacted from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with a far greater catastrophe looming. Another pair of leading funders announce their own austerity measures. 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 conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a biannual gathering held alongside the international conference on women's rights. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to oppose what they term a UN overreach. They are in high spirits as they welcome shifts in US policy on LGBTQ issues, inclusion, and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general opens the global conference with a grave caution that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that groups opposing progressive rights are systematically eroding historic agreements on core aspects of gender equality around the world. Summits Promoting Conservative Norms Over the warmer months, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conventional household and state autonomy sparks alarm among human rights defenders. In the start of May, a national leader and spouse open a major forum to combat what they label external influences undermining local norms. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals is held. Both events are participated in by leading US and European anti-rights figures, including leaders of well-known groups. One speaker calls on African NGOs to stand up to “international liberal agenda” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a family strengthening conference in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become a forum for opposing queer and trans rights. Activists observe that the scale of their presence has expanded considerably. Contraceptive Destruction Order 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 midsummer plans to incinerate millions of dollars worth of contraceptives held in a storage facility in Belgium. A global sexual health network states that their incineration will prevent countless females from family planning options, 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 “a calculated move to control fertility”. A international emergency medical charity calls it “cruel and irresponsible”. NGOs offer to buy the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US refuses all offers. The situation remains in deadlock as local authorities refuse to permit perfectly good supplies to be incinerated. Broader Restrictions on Aid Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, which halts US aid to groups that provide, advocate for or advise on abortion services overseas, is commonplace under certain US administrations. It was widely expected when the policy was restored in the first month of the year. The administration also signed onto a conservative consensus document. But in October, the US announces it intends to expand the global gag rule to include governments and multilateral organisations in addition to NGOs, and to encompass equity and inclusion initiatives. Additional information regarding the expansion of the rule are expected in early 2026. A expert in child welfare says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that upcoming Washington funding agreements being arranged with states on the continent will become contingent upon adopting the new, wider policy.