The end of a 70-year tradition at the UN Commission on the Status of Women |
The 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held in New York from 9–19 March 2026, convened as a follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the 23rd Special Session of the UN General Assembly. Under the theme “Gender equality, development and peace for the 21st century,” the session prioritized the implementation of the strategic objectives and actions of the Fourth World Conference on Women in critical areas, as well as additional initiatives. In this context, discussions focused on ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and removing structural barriers.
The outcome of the session - the annual agreed conclusions - was adopted with 37 votes in favor, 1 against, and 14 abstentions. For the first time in 70 years, the Commission held a vote; in previous years, the outcome document had been adopted by consensus. This time, the vote on the agreed conclusions was requested by the United States after an overwhelming majority rejected the eight amendment proposals it had submitted. The United States sought the removal of language that has long appeared in similar documents and is widely understood to preserve an inclusive vision for protecting the human rights of women and girls.
In fact, what happened was nothing more than the internationalization of the significant shifts in discourse that the Trump administration introduced domestically in 2025 on reproductive health, women’s rights, and equality. Within the scope of these changes in 2025, the U.S. administration reshaped its approach around the concepts of “protecting life” and “strengthening the family,” frequently using these notions as justification for restricting access to abortion and rolling back protections related to sexual and reproductive health and rights. In 2025, U.S. delegates began objecting to the term “gender” in many international forums, arguing that it is a “self-assessed” concept and replacing it with binary, biological definitions. Official language, as part of an agenda limiting protections for transgender and non-binary individuals, targeted trans rights by emphasizing that “men are biologically male and women are biologically female.” The U.S. administration also sought to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion policies by characterizing them as unequal........