WO=MEN in New York

It’s been nearly three months since the CSW70, and the dust has settled — at least for me. When I think back to New York City in March 2026, I’m left with a lingering weight in my stomach. The feeling that something wasn’t quite right. And something wasn’t. Something was missing — or rather, someone. Many someones. We knew this would be the case. New York has never been an accessible city for most activists who need to travel. But this year, the barriers felt almost insurmountable. Shrinking civic space. Defunding across movements. Travel bans. Visa restrictions tied to social media activity. Administrative attacks targeting trans* travellers. A hostile political climate. New and ongoing wars disrupting major travel routes and making flights more expensive and unpredictable. Taken separately, each of these developments creates obstacles. Taken together, they create a reality in which fewer and fewer of our people can make it to New York, especially those from the Global South, trans ac...

Defending Gender Equality in the Multilateral Space   We, the undersigned organisations, strongly aplaud the decisive demonstration by Member States, civil society and feminist movements defending multilateralism and negotiated norms and standards to advance gender equality that took place during the close of the 70th session of the Commission  on the Status of Women (CSW70). On the last day of the CSW70, the room witnessed two unprecedented actions by the United States. In a first for the normally-uncontroversial resolution on women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS, they called for a vote. Afterwards the United States presented a standalone resolution intending to define “gender” under a narrow, binary understanding of  “men and women”. Both initiatives were rejected by a majority of Member States. After failing to secure agreement during the Agreed Conclusion negotiations, and following the defeat of their amendment during their adoption, the United States introduced a stan...

View of the UN flag in New York The tall glass skyscrapers of Manhattan turn gold in the light of dawn. It is 7 a.m. as I make my way to the UN Headquarters, while the sun rises behind Long Island on the other side of the East River. The nearly 200 flags in front of the main UN building hang still; no wind blows on this cold Monday morning. It is March 9th, and the 70th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) is about to begin in the General Assembly Hall. Delegates from member states around the world, along with civil society organizations, activists, and scholars, have flown into New York to take part in this yearly global gathering on gender equality and women’s rights. The buzz is palpable... Excitement fills the hall as attendees turn the aisles into an impromptu runway of photos and selfies. Finally, the lights dim, the music rises, and the moderator theatrically introduces the keynote speakers and high-level guests kicking off this year’s CSW: UN Goodwill Ambassador Anne Hatha...

  The Women’s Rights Caucus, representing over 900 feminist advocates from around the world, urges you to oppose the proposed US draft resolution entitled  “Protection of women and girls through appropriate terminology.” Despite the title, we do not feel protected nor represented by this initiative. Download this statement as pdf.   Download this statement in Spanish.   On the heels of the first-ever recorded vote on the agreed conclusions of the annual meetings of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and in complete disregard of the significant opposition their proposal got in the negotiation room, the United States has circulated a new resolution proposal which attempts to falsely state that the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action agreed that  “gender” was defined as “men and women”. It attributes to annex IV of the Report of the Fourth World Conference of Women a meaning that was never agreed by Member States, effectively rewriting th...

CSW70 side event by the Vatican inside the UN Holy Mary the first surrogate mother? Two thousand years later priests still govern our wombs at the CSW70... Last week, UN Member States voted on the Agreed Conclusions at the 70th edition of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), in New York. It was an historic moment (normally the Agreed Conclusions are adopted by consensus) that marked the end of tense and tiresome negotiations. Progressive and conservative countries clashed over previously agreed UN language and commitments for women’s and girls’ access to justice worldwide. On both sides, civil society was advocating and lobbying to influence the CSW process and outcomes.  Tension rose steadily over the weeks and peaked during the negotiations, where conservative countries were seen openly consulting with anti-rights organizations such as C-Fam (Center for Family and Human Rights), whose advocates positioned themselves in the hallways of UN Headquarters. C-Fam is a p...

Staatssecretaris Judith Tielen bij de CSW70 briefing met Nederlandse ngo's De net geïnstalleerde staatssecretaris Judith Tielen heeft Onderwijs en Emancipatie in haar portefeuille. Nog geen twee weken in haar nieuwe functie, reist ze af naar de Commission on the Status of Women , oftewel de jaarlijkse VN-top voor vrouwenrechten. Een keuze die laat zien dat emancipatie en vrouwenrechten hoog op haar prioriteitenlijstje staan.  Traditiegetrouw heeft de aanwezige Nederlandse bewindspersoon tijdens de CSW een bijeenkomst op de Permanente Vertegenwoordiging met het Nederlandse maatschappelijk middenveld dat in New York is tijdens de conferentie. Deze bijeenkomst wordt georganiseerd door de delegatie in samenwerking met WO=MEN en Atria, een teken van de nauwe en constructieve samenwerking tussen overheid en maatschappelijk middenveld in dit proces. Naast staatssecretaris Judith Tielen waren ook verschillende leden van de Nederlandse overheidsdelegatie aanwezig.  Normaliter wordt er ...

Linda Brouwers in de General Assembly in New York Linda Brouwers is actief Soroptimist in Nederland en voor de tweede keer aanwezig bij de CSW in New York. Hieronder haar verslag – eerst gepubliceerd op de LinkedIn van Soroptimist International Union of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and of Suriname – van de eerste drie dagen.  Dag 1: Maandag 9 maart  De officiële opening van de 70e editie van de Commission on the Status of Women - CSW70.   Het waren indrukwekkende speeches van onder andere Secretaris Generaal Antonio Gutierres, Malala, Anne Hathaway als Goodwill Ambassadeur van UN Women en Michelle Williams zong een prachtig Fearless.    Na de opening was het aannemen van de Agreed Conclusions gepland, met als thema Access to Justice voor alle vrouwen en meisjes. Dit is het document waarover de lidstaten van de VN dit jaar onderhandelden en waar zij zich bij een aanname aan committeren.    Nadat de afronding onverwachts werd uitgesteld tot later...

  The voting results on the CSW70 Agreed Conclusions The Women’s Rights Caucus (WRC)—a global intersectional feminist coalition of more than 800 organizations, networks, and individuals convened by Fòs Feminista, Outright International, African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), and Young Feminist Caucus, that advocates for gender equality at the United Nations—welcomes the adoption of the CSW70 Agreed Conclusions under the priority theme: “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices, and addressing structural barriers.” WO=MEN and several of its members are actively engaged in the WRC.  The close of the seventieth session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women marked an unprecedented procedural departure. For the first time in the Commissi...

  Tot het allerlaatste moment bleef het spannend: zou de VN-Vrouwentop dit jaar worden geopend met een gezamenlijk overeengekomen slotdocument, of niet? Ieder jaar zijn er wel onzekere momenten. Jarenlang betekende dit dat de onderhandelingen complete nachten doorgingen totdat hongerige en vermoeide vertegenwoordigers van de VN Lidstaten dan – meestal – toch wel tot een consensus kwamen. Maar in de 70 jaar dat de Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), zoals dit proces eigenlijk heet, plaats vindt is het nog niet eerder tot een stemming gekomen.   Luid gejuich en geklap in de General Assembly hal van de Verenigde Staten bevestigt dat het uiteindelijk toch is gelukt: het slotdocument, de Agreed Conclusions genaamd, is in de mooie General Assembly aangenomen met een ruime meerderheid. Het scherm met de uitslag van de stemming laat helder zien dat de Verenigde Staten uiteindelijk toch alleen stonden in hun verzet: 37 voor, 6 onthoudingen, en 1 tegenstem. Joyce Brummelman, ...