CSW70: Growing pushbacks against gender equality challenge

THE 70th session of the intergovernmental UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) - UN's largest annual forum on gender equality – is to conclude on March 19 2026 at UN HQ in New York. This year’s priority theme under discussion was ‘Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and addressing structural barriers.’

“However, for the first time in the 70 years’ history of CSW, the outcome document was adopted via a formal vote rather than by consensus, thanks to the retaliatory stand taken by the USA. USA introduced 8 oral amendments aimed at altering the draft text to align with its own positions on issues including against abortion, gender identity, and diversity, equity and inclusion. But these 8 amendments proposed by USA were defeated by other UN Member States or countries (by a vote of 26 to 1, with 14 countries abstaining),” said Shobha Shukla, Host of SHE & Rights (campaign to advance gender equality and human right to health) and Founder Executive Director CNS.

“Ultimately, the CSW70 document was adopted with 37 votes in favour and 1 against (the United States), and 14 abstentions (including Nigeria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia). This rare break from consensus to a vote highlights widening global political divides over gender rights and is a sign of increasing pressure and pushback against existing human rights language, particularly regarding gender equality,” added Shobha Shukla.

Is the outcome document of CSW70 good enough?

Maitree Muzumdar, co-founder Feminist Manch and co-convener of the Young Feminist Caucus and the Women’s Rights Caucus, agreed that CSW70 negotiations took place amid a global rollback of rights, shrinking civic space, rising authoritarianism and militarism, and deepening economic crisis.

Maitree lamented that “Governments (UN Member States) approached access to justice as a technical issue rather than a political issue, focusing on procedural reforms without addressing the structural conditions that produce injustice. This allows governments to avoid confronting the political interests and power relations that sustain injustice”.

“In many contexts, governments themselves are responsible for serious human rights violations through misuse of security laws, policing, and impunity of armed forces used to justify repression and criminalisation against communities demanding justice. These patterns of repression also appear in laws that criminalize LGBTI communities, regulate women and gender diverse people's bodies such as through restrictions on abortion, and render people illegal. The refusal to name discriminatory laws, dilution of commitments under sovereignty clause, and phrases like "as applicable" allow existing social, political, and economic hierarchies to remain untouched,” said Maitree.

Maitree was the opening keynote speaker at a press conference hosted by SHE & Rights and Women's Rights Caucus around 70th Session of the UN Commission on Status of Women (CSW70) with Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), African Women’s Development and Communication Network, Fòs Feminista, Outright International, Young Feminist Caucus, Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and CNS.

Corporate capture lurks

Commenting on the deliberations at CSW70 Maitree Mazumdar said, “There has also been reluctance to address the impunity of the private sector in the privatization of essential public services, climate injustice, human rights violations, and development projects that deepen inequalities between countries and people. These harms are closely tied to development models that prioritize economic growth and profit over people's rights. Yet, these models remained unquestioned, making strong corporate accountability and reparative remedies essential. These realities demand stronger accountability for human rights violations committed by both state and non-state actors. Justice cannot exist without democratizing power and resources or confronting the systems that produce injustice”.

Agrees Josefina Sabate, Argentine feminist activist, who is also part of the Political Advocacy unit at FUSA Asociacion Civil, that the political process (CSW70) has taken place in a highly adverse political context and the CSW70 outcome document is not as progressive as we might have wished. For her “access to justice is not merely a technical matter. Women and girls face numerous obstacles - legal, financial, geographical, and institutional barriers - that hinder their access to justice, bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive health services, and mechanisms for redress and reparation. However, this agenda faces significant resistance in Latin America. Many countries in this region stand in opposition to this agenda. Colombia, fortunately, is one of the few nations in the region that continues to champion these rights”, said Josefina.

We cannot have gender justice under war and genocide

Ayshka Najib, a climate and gender justice advocate and co-convener of the Young Feminist Caucus, rightly pointed out that at CSW70 many western countries that called for ensuring access to justice and gender equality for all women and girls, were the same countries aiding and abetting billions of dollars in military violence and occupation in global south countries, displacing and murdering millions of women and girls.

Ayshka rightly pointed out that “justice for women and girls is systematically obstructed by patriarchal, militarized, and fascist systems manifested through war economies, arms trade, corporate capture, and fossil fuel-based extractive models that dispossess indigenous communities. Achieving justice requires the dismantling of these systems, redistribution of power, demilitarization, protection and expansion of civic spaces, and the meaningful leadership of feminist movements”.

Problems galore in navigating systems of justice

Maluseu Doris Tulifau, a Samoan feminist and founder of Brown Girl Woke, shared the travails of Pacific women - women with disabilities, LGBT+ communities, migrants, and rural women - who continue to face multiple intersecting barriers to justice.

“From a Pacific perspective, justice is not experienced through a single system. Women navigate a continuum of justice systems: formal courts, customary governance, faith-based authority, and family negotiation. For most of the Pacific women, particularly in rural, remote, and outer island communities, customary and community-based justice mechanisms remain the primary entry point for justice,” said Maluseu Tulifau of Samoa.

“But women are also clear-eyed about the limitations. In cases of family and sexual violence, customary processes often prioritize reconciliation or compensation over women's safety and accountability for harm. Family reputation, church authority, and social hierarchy frequently pressure survivors to remain silent about violence and this cultural silence protects the perpetrators,” added Maluseu Tulifau.

Women also confront broader structural challenges. Climate change, rising seas, displacement, extreme weather conditions are intensifying poverty, insecurity, and violence against women and girls across small island countries. Also, without economic security women cannot leave violent situations or pursue legal action. But decades of neoliberal economic policies across the Pacific have weakened the very systems that women rely on for protection and justice. Technology-facilitated violence is yet another serious justice issue. Digital harassment, exploitation, and surveillance are increasingly affecting women and girls across the region.

Doris lamented that at the global level also, Pacific voices remain structurally excluded. Small island states and grassroots organizations face visa barriers, funding limitations, and structural exclusion from global spaces like CSW.

Asel Dunganaeva, social development specialist from Kyrgyzstan said that “across Asia, justice systems remain inaccessible, under-resourced, and attacked by patriarchy and inequality. These systems often exist in law but not in lived experience. Women may have rights on paper but face stigma, fear of retaliation, lack of legal aid, and economic dependency that prevents them from claiming those rights. Discriminatory laws and colonial legal legacies continue to control women’s bodies, restrict sexuality and identity, and criminalize marginalized communities. Even when legal reforms exist, implementation remains weak. We are witnessing a disturbing rollback of women’s human rights and protections against gender-based violence are weakening.”

“Technology-facilitated gender-based violence has also become a powerful tool of control. Cyber-stalking, doxing, online harassment weaponizes sexuality and identity to silence diverse women and girls. Also, for millions of women across Asia, the first experience of injustice is not in a courtroom, it is in the economic systems in which women live. Debt-driven development, austerity policies, and economic inequality are driving public resources away from healthcare, education, and social protection, making justice even more inaccessible for women and communities already living on the margins,” added Asel Dunganaeva.

Shrinking space for feminist voices of the global south- a troubling reality

Despite civil society participation being central to the effectiveness and legitimacy of the CSW, many African women and girls face restrictive access to participation - with visa bans and visa denials based on age and location - making it difficult for them to participate in UN processes like CSW, said Michelle Anzaya, communications professional and feminist leader from Africa.

“For those who are able to travel, concerns around racial profiling, surveillance, and safety further undermine the ability of advocates to engage freely and safely in global policy spaces. We are also witnessing the growing influence of anti-rights actors within multilateral spaces. This imbalance risks distorting participation and weakening the accountability that global gender equality processes depend on, and the global agenda risks being shaped without the voices of those who are most directly affected by inequality and injustice,” added Michelle Anzaya.

Michelle shared that in response to these challenges, African feminist movements are building new spaces for engagement and solidarity. “Initiatives like ‘Africa Disrupts CSW’ demonstrate the power of African feminists to ensure that African realities and lived experiences inform global gender equality debates. National and regional CSW hubs are also emerging, like in Uganda, Gambia, and Cameroon. By creating local spaces for engagement, these alternatives are democratizing participation and strengthening feminist movement building across the continent.

Michelle also warned to remain vigilant about broader challenges to women’s rights. “African feminists have raised concerns about proposals such as the draft African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty, which risks undermining existing regional human rights protections (like the Maputo Protocol) and rolling back hard-won gains for women, girls, and marginalized communities.

Feminist call upon government leaders to deliver on gender equality and justice

Michelle calls upon governments or UN member states, UN leadership, and the CSW Bureau to uphold meaningful, holistic, and inclusive participation as a core principle of CSW processes and to address the structural and systemic barriers that continue to limit the effective participation of women and civil society from the global south, including the restrictive visa regimes. Also, any discussions on reforms to the UN system must reinforce and not weaken the global architecture for gender equality and ensure that CSW outcomes reflect the lived realities and priorities of women and girls across all regions.

Shiphrah Belonguel, Global Advocacy Officer at Fòs Feminista, reiterates “we are fighting for strong language on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that impact access to justice. We are fighting for sexual reproductive health and rights and bodily autonomy as central to access to justice. We are emphasizing that sexual and gender-based violence encompasses harmful acts rooted in structural gender inequalities and power imbalances. These are systemic injustices that justice systems must be equipped to confront”.

Sai Jyothirmai Racherla, Deputy Executive Director, Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) emphasises that human rights, equality and justice are core to sustainable development. We also need to look at redistributive justice- economic, gender, ecological accountability – and prioritize marginalized people and environmental sustainability over profit.

And as Asel remarked “Justice demands redistribution of power and resources, demilitarization of economies, and decolonization of global governments. It requires dismantling systems of power that perpetuate inequality. Without transforming these structural conditions, access to justice cannot be realized.”

(March 17, 2026)