Last week, The Guardian reported that the UK Government is considering scrapping the commitment to spending 80% of foreign aid on programmes that have gender equality as at least one component.

This is the latest of a series of Government decisions to leave the most marginalised women around the world at even greater risk. Cuts to Official Development Assistance (ODA) have disproportionately affected programmes focusing on women and girls, but Starmer has decided to slash ODA to 0.3%. In the Comprehensive Spending Review, women and girls were not included in the priority list for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for the first time.

Meanwhile, misogyny is on the rise, violence against women is epidemic, and social, political, and economic inequality persist. Nearly a quarter of countries reported a backlash to women’s rights in 2024. Every 10 minutes, a woman is killed by a partner or family member. Trump’s America continues to threaten the livelihoods of women globally, with the dismantling of USAID depriving women and girls of essential healthcare.

The UK should be a world leader in defending women’s rights and rejecting growing misogyny and international backlash to gender equality. That’s why we’re bringing a policy motion to Autumn Conference titled Defending Women’s Rights Across the Globe.

The Federal International Relations Committee (FIRC) through its engagement  in Liberal International with sister parties around the world and its work in the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ALDE, has become increasingly aware and concerned of the plight of women across  the globe. At the meeting of Liberal International last December in Santiago in Chile, it became evident that not only were women in countries across Africa finding it increasingly difficult to have their voices heard when trying to raise awareness of the dreadful situation many are experiencing, but that most politicians – mainly men – were not interested or did not regard women’s rights as  a priority.  In Kenya alone a own woman is murdered every 18 minutes – too often the victims of domestic abuse, women and children as young as 8 are regularly sexually abused or raped, and when one woman politician tried to impress the need to do something on her male colleagues she was told to set up a women’s party.  Unfortunately this is too common a picture across Africa where we know that the rights of the LGBT community are increasingly under threat and this situation is sadly mirrored across the globe.

On FIRC we decided to do something about this. We have worked closely with Liberal Democrat Women to produce the motion up for debate at conference – to give women fighting for their rights around the world a voice and for our party to take the lead in holding to account  governments – including our own in the UK – who are cutting their  aid budgets and the vital support being given to empower women in their communities.

Our motion covers a range of issues. This includes tackling violence against women and girls, restoring aid spending, ensuring women are at the table in politics and peacemaking, defending the right to abortion, empowering women economically, and advocating for gender justice in climate change. We call for an intersectional fight for gender equality, because equality for women includes equality for women of colour, disabled women, LGBT+ women, and other marginalised and disadvantaged women. We hope that this motion will be a framework for our work as a party, both domestically and internationally, in standing up for women’s rights.

Women and girls are under threat and it is not enough to be silent. The UK must not be complicit in creating a world that is increasingly hostile towards and unsafe for women and girls.

The debate on our motion is at 12:10pm on Tuesday 23rd September at Autumn Conference. Please consider attending the debate and submitting a speaker’s card for what will be an important moment for our party to stand up for women and girls everywhere.

* Janey Little is the Vice Chair of Liberal Democrat Women (LDW). David Chalmers is the Chair of the Federal International Relations Committee (FIRC).