Fortifies women's rights urged globally; gender equality advancements face peril, cautions UN
In a sobering address at the 16th Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, UN Women's Executive Director, Sima Bahous, highlighted the interconnected global threats jeopardising progress on women's rights.
The conference, headed by Mexico's President, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, emphasised the importance of time for women all over the world. Bahous expressed regret over regions where women's rights are at risk, including decisions over their bodies.
Bahous warned of a potential rollback in women's rights that could set back decades of feminist progress. She stated that women's bodies and voices are under attack, and violence against women and femicide remain a reality. Hard-won advances in gender equality are under threat, she noted, based on fear and misogyny.
The current threats to women's rights, with a focus on gender equality and bodily autonomy, as highlighted by UN Women, include:
- Rising gender-based violence and backlash against women’s rights: There has been a 60% increase in concerns about setbacks in gender equality, with over 150 governments reporting increases in gender-based violence. Nearly one in four countries is experiencing backlash against women’s rights.
- Impact of conflict and humanitarian crises: More than 600 million women and girls live near conflict zones, facing elevated risks of sexual violence driven by conflicts, food insecurity, and diminishing peacekeeping operations. Health systems are collapsing in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine, northern Ethiopia, and Gaza, leaving survivors of sexual violence with inadequate care.
- Digital gender-based violence: The UN has declared 2025 the year to combat digital violence against women, addressing threats like cyberstalking, image-based abuse, and online harassment that silence women and restrict their freedom of expression. A global task force and legal reforms are being promoted to tackle this issue.
- Systematic exclusion and repression in certain countries: In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime severely restricts women’s mobility, public participation, and bodily autonomy—including enforced dress codes and requiring male guardians for women to access services—amounting to near-total exclusion of women from public life.
- Backlash against gender-inclusive language and legal protections: Anti-rights movements are attempting to erase or dilute commitments to gender equality from UN documents, threatening legal frameworks like CEDAW and the Sustainable Development Goals. This undermines accountability for gender-based violence and discrimination and marginalizes women’s diverse experiences.
Bahous emphasized that none of the advances seen in the last 30 years would have been possible without the work of feminists. She highlighted the importance of feminists in breaking the status quo in every society.
UN Women calls for strengthened international legal mechanisms, sustainable funding, and feminist leadership to protect and advance gender equality and bodily autonomy worldwide. The organisation thanked the government of Mexico for promoting the agenda of care and investing public goods in it.
[1] UN Women (2021). Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot. [Online] Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/09/progress-on-the-sustainable-development-goals-the-gender-snapshot
[2] UN Women (2021). State of the World's Nursing Report 2021. [Online] Available at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240036130
[3] UN Women (2021). Ending violence against women online. [Online] Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/digital-technology-and-violence-against-women
[4] Human Rights Watch (2021). Afghanistan: Taliban's Crackdown on Women's Rights. [Online] Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/09/afghanistan-talibans-crackdown-womens-rights
[5] UN Women (2021). The Shadow Pandemic: Violence against women during COVID-19. [Online] Available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/03/the-shadow-pandemic-violence-against-women-during-covid-19
