The Australian delegation at CSW69 pose for a photo on opening day at the United Nations General Assembly
At the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, seated from left: Padma Raman, executive director of Australia’s Office for Women; Stephanie Copus Campbell, Australia’s envoy for gender equality; and Anna Cody, Sex Discrimination Commissioner, March 10, 2025. The annual conference ends March 21, but its political declaration was adopted on March 10, focusing on progress in advancing gender equality globally. The gains have been minimal, advocates say, amid alarming rollbacks. JOHN PENNEY/PASSBLUE
Activists and civil society groups considered the political declaration adopted recently at the Commission on the Status of Women gathering as a victory against strong opposition from the United States. However, women’s rights groups remain deeply concerned that despite 30 years of advocacy, the declaration reveals minimal progress in advancing gender equality as politics disrupt gains and funding continues to lag.
The language of the nonbinding declaration was adopted on March 10, the first day of the 69th session of the CSW, as it’s known; it ends on March 21. The document, focusing on women’s global rights, was significantly watered down to accommodate opposition from some member states, particularly the US, during the months-long negotiations preceding the approval.
Many activists who spoke to PassBlue at various meetings during the annual women’s rights conference did not say the US was responsible for the weakened language on inclusion and rights. Diplomats who took part in the negotiations, however, told PassBlue that the US opposed any gender language and wording deemed to advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and the Sustainable Development Goals.
“It is the policy of the United States to use clear and accurate language that recognizes women are biologically female and men are biologically male,” a statement from the US mission to the UN read, explaining its stance. “We are disappointed the Political Declaration did not focus on the needs and perspectives of women and girls through precise terminology.”
Jonathan Shrier, a diplomat with the US mission, elaborated at a CSW meeting, saying: “The United States government will no longer promote radical ideologies that replace women with men in spaces and opportunities designed for women. Nor will it devastate families by indoctrinating our sons and daughters to begin wars with their own bodies – or each other.”
Additionally, Washington opposed “equal pay for work of equal value” wording to ensure pay equity between men and women. Instead, it wanted “equal pay for equal work” – which, although its meaning is unclear, could signal that gender considerations should not be part of pay-rate decisions.
As civil society groups in the multilateral space have begun campaigning for a woman UN secretary-general for the 2027-2031 term, the current US stance on the place of women in society presents a major challenge. Shrier, acting US representative to the UN Economic and Social Council, also said during his speech on March 14 that the US does not support “radical ideologies that replace women with men in spaces and opportunities designed for women.”
With President Donald Trump in the White House, civil society advocates pushing against power imbalances and the UN’s inability to respond effectively to global crises and wars has grown louder, said Maiara Folly, the executive director of Plataforma CIPÓ, a research group, and a member of the Steering Committee of 1 for 8 Billion. The group is campaigning for a transparent selection process to select the next UN secretary-general for the 2027-31 term as well as ensuring a woman gets the job.
“In the current climate of increasing hostility toward the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality agenda, securing the selection of a woman as the next UN Secretary-General will be a significant challenge,” Folly said in an email to PassBlue. “While the United States has been vocal in its opposition, an increasing number of Member States are publicly advocating for an all-female shortlist for the position. Expanding this coalition and encouraging more Member States to take a public stance in favor of a female Secretary-General is essential.”
This year, the CSW commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the political statement reviewed women’s overall progress in the last five years. The Beijing document is the world’s primary map for advancing gender equality through 12 areas of focus, including women’s health and financial prosperity. It was in 1995 that the UN first agreed that women should decide on their sexual and reproductive health without discrimination, coercion or violence, with 189 countries signing on to the commitment.
Fifty years after the first UN World Conference on Women, held in Mexico City, 30 years since the pivotal Beijing platform and 25 years since the special session of the General Assembly on “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century,” activists are saying that the newly adopted declaration fell short in addressing key gender-equality issues, particularly reproductive rights, climate justice and economic justice.
The human rights of women, a critical focus of the Beijing declaration, have faced intense scrutiny, said Latiyah Orneill, a founder of the Transgender and Rights Association in Côte d’Ivoire. She said the negotiations that produced the document contended with major resistance to gender equality and intersectional language as well as references to DEI. These matters have become contentious under US President Donald Trump.
On the left is Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, Ghana Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection
Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, left, Ghana’s minister for gender, children and social protection, at the CSW. The US disassociated itself from the political declaration at the conference, including objecting to the word “gender.” March 11, 2025. JOHN PENNEY/PASSBLUE
Although the declaration was approved by consensus, the US disassociated itself from it despite efforts to accommodate Washington’s new policies. Senior diplomats who were privy to the discussions told PassBlue that the word “gender,” for example, has become controversial for the US if it does not define gender as biological sex.
Happy Mwende Kinyili, a co-executive director at Mama Cash, the oldest international women’s fund in the world, said it is ironic to see countries “relitigate” hard-fought battles won by previous generations. According to a review by FP Analytics, rollbacks in women’s political rights and civil liberties occurred in 52 countries in 2024 alone.
“I was at a session earlier where someone said when they went to negotiations around the Beijing Platform for Action, the word ‘gender’ was bracketed, meaning it was still up for conversation,” Kinyili said to a roomful of women at a CSW event on March 12. “This was 30 years ago, and we are right back where the concept again is being relitigated.”
Language is not the only topic being scrutinized. As Kinyili said, investments in gender advocacy are also being cut. Data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that official development assistance (ODA) has been dropping since 2022. A two percent decrease in 2023 affected more than 70 low- and middle-income countries.
The Trump administration has made massive cuts to foreign aid and terminated thousands of US Agency for International Development contracts, causing high panic that the world’s most vulnerable people will be abandoned. European countries have also cut back on humanitarian aid to refocus spending on military support for Ukraine. All these actions have put more burdens on women who already struggle with peculiar challenges as part of the global refugee movements.
Speakers during various CSW meetings have deliberated on how far the world has come from actualizing the core objective of the Beijing platform to reaffirming the rights of all women and girls.
Indeed, the uprising of anti-rights movements is threatening progress of the last 30 years, said Luz Wagner, the deputy director at Fòs Feminista, an alliance promoting the sexual and reproductive health of women. She criticized the omission of strong language on the subject in the CSW declaration, particularly as several countries reduce if not end abortion rights.
Two countries staunchly against gender equality during the negotiations, Argentina and the US, have limited sexual reproductive health care for women. The US overturned the Supreme Court’s Roe vs Wade ruling, which has drastically curtailed access to abortion in many states in the country, leaving women needing urgent help to travel miles for medical services or to revert to underground solutions.
Similarly, in Argentina, legal abortion is threatened by stiff regulation from the government of President Javier Milei. Wagner of Fòs Feminista said the government is failing to distribute vital medication critical to women’s reproductive health.
On the right is Ing Kantha Phavi, Cambodian Minister of Womens Affairs.
Ing Kantha Phavi, Cambodian minister of women’s affairs, right, March 10, 2025. A global anti-rights movement has reared its head during the conference, jeopardizing progress in sexual and reproductive health rights. JOHN PENNEY/PASSBLUE
“The presence of [anti-rights] movements in multilateral spaces such as the UN is a threat we cannot ignore,” Wagner said. “In spite of what has been stated in the political declaration, this is an urgent call to [countries] not only to defend the progress made in sexual and reproductive rights and gender-based violence prevention but to actively commit to their protection and expansions.”
Despite these shortcomings, Orneill of the Transgender and Rights Association said the UN declaration trumpeted gains. For the first time, gender-based violence was adopted as a sentence in the document, she said. Under paragraph 15, member states recognized new challenges and reaffirmed their commitment to tackle them.
“Ensuring victims and survivors of all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual and gender-based violence and sexual violence in conflict, have prompt and universal access to quality social and healthcare services such as psychological and counseling services, as well as access to justice, including legal services, to end impunity,” the declaration proclaims.
Nonetheless, activists from Sudan, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and other conflict areas demanded a more emphatic commitment to ending gender-based violence in war zones. Women there face heightened vulnerabilities due to displacement, physical demolitions and other restrictions, they argued. Shaza Elmahdi, the Sudan country director at the Center for International Private Enterprise, part of the US-based National Endowment for Democracy, said that women in Sudan have great difficulty accessing basic health care, like maternity services.
Tonni Ann Brodber, who heads the UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, said that about nine million Ukrainian women cannot get reproductive health care since the US cut all its funding to the UN Population Fund, or UNFPA.
“We’re making the case for why women should be in the room when it has been proven that if women are not in the room in peacekeeping processes, we don’t have durable peace,” Brodber said.
On climate matters, Ishaan Shah of the Young Feminist Caucus, which advocates in “UN spaces,” said language on girls’ participation and leadership in decision-making on environmental and global warming issues could have moved the needle of member states forward in the declaration. Instead, he said, a pledge to climate action remained the same as five years ago.
“It’s difficult to celebrate this year’s political declaration that is standing still while the climate emergency exacerbates,” Shah said. “In the face of growing climate crises, increasing displacement, rising debt and undeniable evidence of the disproportionate impact on women and girls. We cannot afford this stagnation.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said during the CSW’s opening day on March 10 that women’s rights are “under siege” while highlighting new threats of violence against women caused by technology, including on social media. Guterres said that 90 percent of more than 95 percent of all nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes online feature women.
“And unequal access to technologies inflames existing inequalities,” he added.
Damilola Banjo
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was named the 2020 Nigeria Investigative Journalist of the Year by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in communications and language arts from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.