Battle for women's rights intensifies at the UN (By UN News)
New York, US (PANA) - The consensus has shattered. For the first time in its history, the Commission on the Status of Women – an annual global forum dedicated to gender equality – failed to adopt its final document unanimously. The text had to be put to a vote, starkly revealing the political divisions that now plague the fight for women's rights.
For Annalena Baerbock, President of the UN General Assembly, this rupture is not just a sign of diplomatic tension. According to her, it also reflects an increasingly visible global confrontation surrounding gender equality.
“We had never seen a vote before,” she admitted to reporters on Friday at the organisation’s headquarters in New York. “But we have experienced situations where there simply was no final document.”
The former German foreign minister prefers to see this episode as a revealing paradox: if the consensus is disappearing, it is also because a large number of states now refuse to give in to the attempts by a minority to backtrack. "The vast majority did not work hand in hand with those who want to return to the past," she insisted.
A global battleground
Every year, the Commission on the Status of Women brings together thousands of diplomats, politicians, and activists in New York to assess the state of women's rights around the world. But this 70th edition, which runs until 19 March, is taking place in a particularly tense atmosphere.
“Women’s rights are the barometer of the strength, freedom, and economic development of societies,” Ms. Baerbock stated at the opening of the press conference. “Gender equality has never been so widely supported around the world, but at the same time, we have never seen such organised attempts to roll back these gains.”
To illustrate the importance of this issue, she emphasised the economic impact of equality. Closing the gender pay gap could add $12 trillion to global GDP. Reducing the gender digital divide would grow the global economy by more than $100 trillion by 2050.
"Once again, women's rights are in everyone's interest," she insisted.
The weight of the resistors
The President of the General Assembly acknowledges, however, that progress is encountering persistent, sometimes unexpected, resistance.
She recounted a revealing example. In some countries, banking algorithms continued to automatically grant higher credit limits to men than to women, even when the latter earned more.
"These algorithms were programmed according to old biases," she explained.
For Ms. Baerbock, this type of discrimination shows that legal progress is not enough: inequalities can reinvent themselves in technologies, economic norms or social structures.
Iran, Gaza, Afghanistan: Human Rights Diplomacy
The debates of this commission were also marked by international crises.
Asked about the situation in Iran, the President of the General Assembly addressed a direct message to the women of the country: "As a woman and as President of the General Assembly, we stand with you."
She recalled the creation of a Human Rights Council fact-finding mission into the recent violations committed by the Iranian regime against protesters.
Regarding Gaza, she emphasised the universal nature of human rights, including women's rights, which she described as "indivisible". However, she noted that women and girls are often the first victims of conflicts, citing the difficulties in delivering humanitarian aid and the destruction of homes in the Palestinian enclave.
"Women and girls suffer the most when homes are destroyed and reconstruction is impossible," she observed.
The senior official also denounced the situation in Afghanistan, which she described as "the most severe attack on human rights", with women there being “imprisoned in their own homes”.
A global mobilisation
Despite these crises, the President of the General Assembly says she sees a profound transformation: women, now connected through digital networks, are forming an increasingly visible global solidarity.
“Women in the Americas, in Europe, and elsewhere are speaking out,” she explained. “They are supporting each other and refusing to give up the rights they have won.”
In a context of geopolitical tensions and political disputes, the battle for gender equality has thus become one of the most visible fronts in international debates.
And, judging by the divisions that have emerged this year at the UN, it is far from over.
-0- PANA MA 15March2026
