A Quintet of Crucial Incidents in the Attack on the Rights of Women and Girls in 2025.

Twelve months prior, women’s rights organisations were preparing for a Trump presidency sequel. Scarcely anyone expected. The torrent and swiftness of executive orders emanating from the White House were interpreted as a calculated strategy to overwhelm and create panic. In many ways it worked – there was bewilderment, fury, and fatigue as agencies hastened to fill the gap left by a abrupt cessation of financial support. But this was only the precursor.

The American government has been the primary force, aided by fervent lobbying efforts by deeply conservative factions exploiting the situation to solidify transnational relationships with political allies.

The anti-rights movement describes a worldwide alliance of political leaders, religious institutions, civil society groups as well as ultra-rich backers and donors that strive to weaken gains in a variety of areas. Areas targeted involve reproductive choice, queer and transgender freedoms, diverse family models, and honest sex ed.

They do this by advocating to officials, financing legal challenges, sabotaging multilateral work to push for parity, disseminating propaganda, and supporting ideologically-matched groups.

We examine five junctures that impacted the safety, dignity and lives of women and girls.

The Demise of a Major Aid Agency

In early spring, shortly after a major US aid agency is frozen, causing turmoil around the world, a senior US official reveals that nearly all of the body's projects will be terminated. American foreign service officers, ex-presidents and relief and public health authorities denounce the action, cautioning that mortality will increase. Activists say that the dismantling of this institution is more than a funding crisis, it is a brutal assault on fundamental freedoms and access to contraception and reproductive health services. Many organisations say the impact on girls and women will be severe by waning support, especially in war zones. As the year ends, evidence indicates how a tremendous loss of life has already occurred from disease, starvation, lack of access to maternal care and gender-based violence, with many more millions at risk. Two other major donor nations initiate similar reductions. A director of a global justice organization says a move to cut foreign aid drastically is a move to appease a political ally.

Faith-Based Activists Mobilize at UN Conference

In March, several conservative religious groups meet in an upmarket New York hotel for a strategic summit held concurrently with the annual UN Women gathering. It is an chance to exchange strategies on how to defeat the UN’s “radical agenda”. They are in buoyant mood as they welcome 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 somber alert that “the venom of male dominance” is back, after a analysis demonstrates that anti-rights actors are deliberately weakening established norms on key women’s rights issues around the world.

African ‘Family Values’ Conferences

Over the summer, a sequence of gatherings in Africa themed around the conservative family structures and national independence raises concerns among human rights defenders. In early May, a president and first lady open a major forum to push back on what they label criminal foreign forces eroding traditional family values. A soon after, another regional summit on traditional morals 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 “worldwide progressive social restructuring” of multilateral bodies. In June, a prominent church hosts a event focused on reinforcing families in an African nation, an event that health activists say has become an anti-LGBTQ, anti-gender platform. Campaigners note that the scale of their presence has grown significantly.

Contraceptive Destruction Order

As health facilities across Africa report they are facing shortages of birth control, including emergency kits for survivors of sexual violence, the US announces in midsummer plans to destroy a significant cache of reproductive health commodities held in a storage facility in Belgium. A major reproductive health federation states that their incineration will prevent a huge female population 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 “an intentional act of reproductive coercion”. A prominent medical humanitarian organization calls it “callous and reckless”. Charities attempt to acquire the contraceptives so they can be distributed to those in need, but the US declines every proposal. The situation remains at a standstill as local authorities refuse to permit the destruction of viable medicines.

Broader Restrictions on Aid

Bringing back the anti-abortion funding ban, 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 October, the US announces it intends to extend the restrictions to include national governments and international bodies in addition to NGOs, and to include DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) projects. Further specifics about the broader enforcement are expected in early 2026. A leader in global maternal health says broadening the policy will have “unimaginable effects”. Advocates for bodily autonomy fear that fresh American assistance deals being arranged with states on the continent will become dependent on agreeing to the new, wider policy.