Position paper of the members of the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group (SCAG) ahead of International Women’s Day and in the context of CSW70

Ahead of International Women’s Day, and in the context of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (GASC LAC) expresses its deep concern over the progressive weakening of the gender equality agenda in multiple countries and within the multilateral system itself.

8 March is not a symbolic commemoration; it is an urgent call to defend and advance commitments to substantive equality that today face clear regressions and threaten peace, human rights, and the sustainability of life and the planet. Every gender equality indicator in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including Sustainable Development Goal 5, depends on strong institutions, adequate financing, genuine political will, and the meaningful participation of women in decision-making and in the implementation of public policies.

Rather than declining, violations of the rights of women and girls are intensifying in a global context marked by impunity. In several countries, long-standing commitments to equality are being rolled back through legal reforms that restrict freedoms and limit women’s public voice. This is compounded by the rise of digital violence, which is advancing faster than its regulation, and by the persistence of sexual violence in conflict settings, where it continues to be used as a tool of domination. The recent increase in reported cases underscores the urgent need to strengthen effective protection and accountability mechanisms.

In this context, defending international law and strengthening rules-based United Nations institutions is not a technical matter, but a political pillar of multilateralism, justice, and accountability, particularly for women and girls around the world. For this reason, CSW70 must serve as a space to make visible and respond to the multiple human rights violations and situations of impunity faced by women and girls in all their diversity, both in the region and globally, and to reaffirm that women’s rights remain a priority for the multilateral system and deserve sustained investment of time, political will, and resources.

Amid multiple crises, budget cuts, and setbacks in the agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment, the United Nations UN80 Initiative cannot become a technocratic exercise that weakens core mandates. What is at stake is the very architecture of gender equality and human rights, as well as the capacity of the multilateral system to respond coherently, with legitimacy, and with a human rights-centered approach to the long-standing demands of women’s and feminist movements.

Access to justice: without accountability, there is no equality

The priority theme of CSW70, access to justice for all women and girls, must be addressed with structural depth. It cannot be limited to procedural reforms; it is about redistributing power, reallocating resources, and transforming institutions.

Laws alone do not guarantee justice. Discriminatory social norms persist, including stigmatization, victim blaming, and community pressure that silence survivors and hinder effective access to justice. These challenges are compounded by economic, territorial, linguistic, and time-related barriers, as well as distrust in institutions, all of which further limit real possibilities for reporting human rights violations and abuses and obtaining redress.

It requires judicial systems with a gender-responsive and intersectional perspective grounded in a human rights approach; the eradication of all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls in all their diversity; effective protection of women human rights defenders; comprehensive reparations and guarantees of non-repetition; disaggregated data and robust accountability mechanisms; and the review and repeal of discriminatory laws and policies, both in their legal framework and in their practical implementation.

With five years remaining to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the systematic failure to take action to prevent, address, and repair gender-based violence and to guarantee access to justice and reparations shows that international commitments cannot continue to stand as empty declarations without political consequences.

This 8 March, the call is clear: end impunity, defend the rule of law, and ensure that equality is reflected both in legislation and in its effective implementation.  

The revitalization of multilateralism must be feminist, or it will not be revitalization at all

Reform of the multilateral system must begin with a non-negotiable principle: gender equality and human rights are structural pillars, not optional components. A eminist multilateralism means placing the sustainability of life at the center of global economic governance; reaffirming the legally binding nature of commitments undertaken through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, CEDAW, and the 2030 Agenda; guaranteeing the effective and safe participation of civil society, particularly the feminist movements, without reprisals; and rejecting any reform that dilutes, merges, or reduces specific gender equality mandates under the argument of efficiency.

The UN80 initiative cannot be used to justify budget cuts, opaque centralization, or institutional weakening. Revitalizing is not scaling back. Modernizing is not depoliticizing. Reform cannot mean undermining progress.

Defending and strengthening UN Women is a global political responsibility

UN Women was the result of decades of feminist advocacy to correct the historical fragmentation and weakness of gender equality institutions within the United Nations system. Upholding its mandate is a matter of coherence with Beijing+30, the 2030 Agenda, and international human rights treaties ratified by most States.

Its financing mechanisms have been decisive in strengthening the leadership, political participation, and economic autonomy of historically excluded women, including women with disabilities, nd Indigenous, and Afro-descendant women, and women of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Through these mechanisms, UN Women supports their organizations, promotes inclusive public policies, and ensures that the equality agenda incorporates an intersectional and human rights perspective. Weakening UN Women at a time of global regression would send an unmistakable message: that gender equality is expendable. It is not.

Without gender mechanisms, there is no substantive democracy

In Latin America and the Caribbean, as in other regions, we are witnessing the dismantling or downgrading of ministries and gender equality mechanisms, the reduction of budgets, and the persecution or criminalization of feminist activists. These setbacks violate international obligations undertaken through CEDAW, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the 2030 Agenda.

Their impacts are felt more severely by those who face structural and historical inequalities at the intersection of gender with racism, ableism, classism, and other forms of exclusion. In particular, women with disabilities in all their diversity face compounded barriers and depend to a greater extent on accessible public policies, gender-responsive and intersectional budgets, and robust protection systems to guarantee their autonomy, access to justice, health, education, employment, and political participation.

Gender equality institutions are not bureaucracy; they are a democratic infrastructure. Their weakening deepens structural inequalities and reinforces existing violence and exclusion, increasing risks of poverty, discrimination, and the denial of rights.

We are not asking for new empty commitments. We are demanding coherence.

Gender equality is notnegotiable.

The mandate of UN Women is not interchangeable.

Access to justice is not optional.

Gender equality mechanisms are not expendable.

Women and girls are not disposable. 

Members of the UN Women Regional Civil Society Advisory Group (CSAG) for Latin America and the Caribbean (2023–2025): 

Ruth Spencer (Antigua and Barbuda); Edurne Cárdenas (Argentina); Jimena Freitas (Bolivia); Camila Maturana Kesten (Chile); Floridalma López (Guatemala); Olga Montúfar Contreras (Mexico); Sofía Carrillo Zegarra (Peru); and Terry Dale Ince (Trinidad and Tobago).