Yesterday was International Women’s Day, so it’s fitting that the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) kicks off today in New York. We look forward to gathering with representatives from UN Member States, UN entities, and other NGOs to engage in meaningful, action-oriented conversations on this year’s theme of strengthening access to justice for women and girls.
This year’s CSW comes at a troubling time of increasing crisis for women and girls. Backsliding on gender equality, massive humanitarian aid cuts, and draconian policy shifts in the US and other countries made 2025 one of the most regressive years ever for women’s rights and justice. Harms for women and girls will be further compounded by last week’s expansion of the so-called global gag rule.
CSW is supposed to be a time when feminist leaders from all over the world come together to discuss challenges like these, identify solutions, and set priorities for the year ahead. Yet travel bans, visa restrictions, and violent immigration enforcement in the US, along with the resurgence of conflict in Iran and the region, mean that women from the world’s worst humanitarian crises—including those in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Sudan—will be unable to attend. Ironically, those excluded from the conversation are the ones who are likely to be most impacted by its outcome.
Women must be included in decision-making about their safety, communities, and countries. Now more than ever, those of us who are able to attend CSW must advocate for those of us who cannot be there. We must stand in solidarity with those who are most impacted by displacement and injustice, carrying their voices with us into the halls of power where conversations are taking place about their futures.
To that end, WRC will be at CSW to convene and participate in critical conversations on advancing equal nationality rights (a session co-sponsored by our colleagues at GCENR, among others, and which will be livestreamed on UNTV); supporting women-led organizations as they navigate challenges in the humanitarian sector; addressing the impact of immigration enforcement on survivors of gender-based violence; and much more.
We look forward to sharing highlights and reflections from CSW, which runs through March 19, in a subsequent blog post.