The Commission on the Status of Women, in its seventieth session, has outlined a comprehensive set of urgent actions required by 2030 to bolster access to justice for all women and girls.
The seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women has taken place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and lasted from March 9 to 19. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world attended the Commission.
Forty-five Member States of the United Nations serve as members of the Commission at any one time. The Commission consists of one representative from each of the 45 Member States elected by the Economic and Social Council on the basis of equitable geographical distribution: 13 members from Africa, 11 from Asia, nine from Latin America and the Caribbean, eight from Western Europe and other States and four from Eastern Europe.
The Bureau of the Commission plays a crucial role in facilitating the preparation for, and in ensuring the successful outcome of, the annual sessions of the Commission.
The Bureau for the 70th session (2026) of the Commission on the Status of Women comprised the following members: H.E. Ms. Maritza Chan Valverde from Costa Rica, Chair (Latin American and the Caribbean States Group), Ms. Samah Dbouk from Lebanon, Vice-Chair (Asia-Pacific States Group), Mr. Noah Oehri from Liechtenstein, Vice-Chair (Western European and Other States Group), Ms. Andreea Mocanu from Romania, Vice-Chair (Eastern European States Group), Ms. Flavia Umulisa from Rwanda, Vice-Chair (African States Group).
The active participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was a critical element in the work of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
Theme
The priority theme was 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.
The review theme was women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls (agreed conclusions of the sixty-fifth session).
The underlying concern was the shrinking of democratic space, which is having a negative impact on women and girls around the world. Legal equality remains out of reach for the majority of the world’s women and girls who possess only 64% of the legal rights of men.
Official meetings
Some of the themes of the official meetings were achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all older women, as well as women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, the elimination of violence, achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
Conclusions
The conclusions of the seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other relevant treaties, previous outcome documents and declarations related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
The Commission on the Status of Women, in its seventieth session, has outlined a comprehensive set of urgent actions required by 2030 to bolster access to justice for all women and girls. These actions are broadly categorized into two main themes: strengthening legal and institutional frameworks, and ensuring practical, accessible, and responsive justice mechanisms. The first theme emphasizes the critical need for governments to ratify and fully implement international conventions, conduct thorough legislative reviews to eliminate discriminatory provisions, and enhance the capacity of institutions to mainstream gender equality. This includes adopting national action plans to combat violence against women and girls, ensuring meaningful participation of civil society in legislative processes, and enacting laws that protect women’s rights in the workplace.
The second overarching theme focuses on making justice systems more inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the diverse needs of women and girls. This involves establishing accessible pathways to justice services, ensuring that justice mechanisms are independent, accountable, and gender-responsive, and providing continuous capacity-building for justice professionals. Key actions also include investing in education and legal literacy, engaging men and boys as partners for change, eliminating discrimination in family relations, and allocating sufficient resources to the justice sector and gender equality initiatives. Furthermore, the Commission stresses the importance of leveraging technology to enhance access to justice while mitigating risks, investing in data collection and gender analysis to inform policy, and ensuring that transitional and international justice mechanisms are gender-responsive, particularly in conflict and humanitarian settings.