At this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, the United Nations made steps to ensure women’s justice globally.
Emma Richman, Global Writer
The day after International Women’s Day, the United Nations held its 70th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) with the goal to strengthen equal access to justice for women and girls through a set of global agreements.
UN decisions traditionally operate on a consensus, meaning a general agreement without objection or need for a vote. Due to pushback from US representative Dan Negrea, the commission moved to adopt the measure through a vote. This resulted in a single “no” vote from the US, across 44 participating nations.
The CSW is the “principal intergovernmental global body” dedicated to promoting gender equality, and securing rights and empowerment for women globally, according to the CSW page on the UN Women website. During its annual two-week convention, UN leaders and non-governmental organizations meet with representatives from participating sovereign nations, called UN Member States, to discuss the condition of women’s rights.
During this year’s session, representatives from each CSW Member State adopted conclusions on strengthening and ensuring access to justice for women and girls, inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and addressing structural barriers.
UN Under-Secretary-General Sima Bahous kicked off the session by voicing the importance of this year’s theme of justice.
“The theme, at its heart, is the woman who continues to live with her abusive partner, having despaired of help from the justice system. It is the girl who is killed or raped or injured in war because the perpetrators are unrestrained in their impunity. It is the woman whose very potential is diminished because laws on work deny her rights and the chance for equal pay. It is the girl denied nationality under discriminatory laws,” Bahous said.
During the live-streamed commission, representatives from nations around the world used the general discussion sessions to speak on these issues. Annalena Baerbock, president of the UN General Assembly, listed the relevant statistics in the struggle for women’s rights—what she said is fundamentally a struggle for justice itself.
“Globally, women have only two-thirds of the legal rights afforded to men. Fifty-four percent of countries lack consent-based legal definitions of rape,” Baerbock said. “These are not oversights. These are deliberate choices.”
Civil Society Representative Eunice Musiime listed some realities for women and girls, and their barriers to justice, and notes that Member States could take the steps towards ending them. Examples of such barriers include unsafe environments for victims and their defenders, rural areas that have poor access to courts, and justice systems denying women inheritance and property.
Musiime went on to describe another barrier: weaponized poverty.
“Transport costs, legal fees and unsafe environments force women to withdraw cases,” Musiime explained. “Economic exclusion is systemic, and it is systemic violence.”
Musiime also touched on violence against women that happens online, and the use of rape as a weapon—which is when those engaged in armed conflict use sexual violence as a means of psychological humiliation.
“Justice systems collapse precisely when women need them the most,” Musiime added.
The CSW’s focus on justice was unprecedented to Stephanie Covington, whose career revolves around the same international issue.
“So often, this is an invisible group of women, even in organizations that are focused on women,” she said.
Covington and her colleague Barbara Bloom founded The Center for Gender & Justice, which advises criminal justice agencies in the US and internationally on implementing gender responsive approaches to their systems. For 50 years, Bloom and Covington’s work has revolved around upholding values much like what was brought forth in the agreed conclusions.
“I think they’ve captured the issues globally and what needs to be addressed,” Covington said on the measure. “And this is an ongoing struggle. I mean, these issues have been at the forefront for a number of years now. And so the struggle continues.”
However, the agreed conclusions are not legally binding. They are more of a framework, urging Member States to make steps to improve women’s rights in their nation’s justice system.
Through working with local prisons and jails to implement gender-responsive strategies, Bloom has noticed a lack of continuity with what gets implemented.
“It becomes an issue that’s important at a particular point in time,” Bloom said. “And a group or an organization will focus their energy and some resources on it, and then they move on, sort of to the next issue.”
She hopes the CSW measure will have long term continuity.
The agreed conclusions could have looked a lot different, due to one voice of disagreement.
Prior to the measure’s adoption, US representative Negrea proposed several amendments. In one, following rhetoric from a Trump executive order, Negrea argued for an amendment to the measure defining “gender” to refer only to “men and women on the basis of biological sex, and not to subjective notions of gender identity.”
During delegations, Negrea explained his decision by arguing that there was not sufficient time for negotiation. He noted that in the past, agreed conclusions had been adopted near the end of the convention.
Negrea also remarked that he repeatedly told the UN chair that the US could not accept a draft that included, along with language promoting gender ideology, “vague, unqualified commitments to sexual and reproductive health that can be interpreted as implying abortion rights,” and broad censorship language around regulating AI.
Rather than accepting the calls for amendments, the UN Bureau, under Maritza Chan of Costa Rica and Under-Secretary-General Bahous, decided to push for a vote. The vote prevented the measure from being altered or halted, and was done to protect its core values in ensuring women’s access to justice.
Covington viewed the “no” vote as an indictment to where the US has been heading, when in the past the country had championed women’s rights legislation. To vote “no” rather than abstain, which six Member States did, was a deliberate statement.
“So we are living in…very troubling, dangerous times in terms of women’s rights, the rights of transgender people, LGBTQ people,” Covington said. “The Trump administration is moving to try to erase all the work that’s been done in this country and trying to basically isolate us from the rest of the world.”
These actions of the Trump administration, coupled with the “no” vote, is why Covington believes the measure will have no impact on the US.
In their research and policy work, Covington and Bloom remain committed to continuing to do what they can for women in the justice system.
Similarly, youth leaders during the CSW spoke on what they are continuing to do for women in their own countries.
Rania Hogga is a program coordinator at the nonprofit Project Soar, which advocates and hosts programs for teen girls in Morocco and elsewhere in the Global South. Their team teaches teens how to fight against child marriage and prepare for their careers, along with educating them on topics like menstrual health, female empowerment, and gender-based violence.
At the CSW, she spoke on the barriers faced by activists who fight for women’s rights and justice.
“In many contexts, restrictive laws, surveillance, and intimidation discourage youth from engaging in civic and political processes,” Hogga said. “Young activists, particularly those advocating for gender equality are often exposed to harassment, online abuse, and threats to their safeties.”
Hogga has tried to be hopeful yet realistic about how the UN measure will affect conditions in Morocco. Although Hogga thinks this UN measure alone does not automatically result in change, a measure she deems an international framework, the real impact can happen when activists use it as a tool in advocating for change.
“International frameworks are often essential advocacy tools for civil society organizations, enabling them to press for accountability and to align national efforts with global standards,” Hogga said in an interview. “They help identify violations, strengthen the legitimacy of local advocates, and provide communities with strong arguments for holding their governments to account.”
When these organizations and activists on the ground are dedicated to holding governments at the local level accountable, Hogga believes progress from this UN measure is possible.
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