UN sounds alarm over backslide in gender equality

__________________

Women and girls are navigating a very challenging moment of profound strain, democratic backsliding, rising conflicts and economic pressures, a senior UN official said Wednesday.

There's also the shrinking of civic space as well as increasingly organised pushback on gender equality and the regression of women's rights, said Sarah Hendriks, UN Women's director of the Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Support Division, on the global launch of the UN secretary-general's report.

The report, "Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls", was released ahead of International Women's Day 2026 and the 70th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is scheduled for March 9-19.

Hendriks warned that there are women who choose not to report the violence they experience, because they fear that they won't be believed.

And, it's been revealed that there are women who are paid less than their male counterparts in the very same work in places where the law does not actually require equal pay; and there are girls who don't have birth registration, face heightened risk of child marriage, and face heightened risk of trafficking.

"No country in the world has achieved full legal equality between women and men," she said.

According to the secretary-general's report, globally, women have 64 percent of the legal rights of men, as discriminatory legal frameworks continue to prevail.

It reveals that 54 % of countries lack consent-based legal definitions of rape, while 72% allow child marriage in all or some circumstances; and in 44 %of countries, the law does not mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value, meaning women can still legally be paid less for the same work.

While progress is possible as 87 % of countries have enacted domestic violence legislation, and more than 40 countries have strengthened constitutional protections for women and girls over the past decade.

The report adds that discriminatory social norms -- stigma, victim-blaming, fear, and community pressure -- continue to silence survivors and obstruct justice, allowing even the most extreme forms of violence, including femicide, to go unpunished.

Women's access to justice is also prevented by everyday realities such as cost, time, language, and a deep lack of trust in the very institutions meant to protect them, the report showed.

In a press release, UN Women's Executive Director Sima Bahous said that "when women and girls are denied justice, the damage goes far beyond any single case. Public trust erodes, institutions lose legitimacy, and the rule of law itself is weakened. A justice system that fails half the population cannot claim to uphold justice at all."

"Now is the moment to stand up, show up, and speak up for rights, for justice, and for action - so that every woman and girl can live safely, speak freely, and live equally," Bahous stressed.

According to the release, as backlash against longstanding commitments on gender equality intensifies, violations of the rights of women and girls are accelerating, fueled by a global culture of impunity, spanning from courts to online spaces to conflict. 

As technology outpaces regulation, women and girls face growing digital violence in a climate of impunity where perpetrators are rarely held accountable. And in conflicts, rape continues to be used as a weapon of war, with reported cases of sexual violence rising by 87 percent in just two years.

In the release, UN Women calls for urgent and decisive action: end impunity, defend the rule of law, and deliver equality -- in law, in practice, and in every sphere of life -- for all women and girls.