'Justice for women must move from the margins to the centre' – UN Women

The United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous has declared that justice for women and girls must move from the margins to the centre.

“Let us commit to comprehensive reforms that eliminate discriminatory laws, strengthen and finance justice institutions, expand legal aid and quality services, harness data for people-centred justice, and support feminist movements that drive change,” she said.

Speaking at a forum convened by the UN Women tagged "Bridging Systemic Gaps: Advancing Justice for All Women and Girls" in New York as part of the ongoing 2026 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) session, Ms Bahous said discriminatory laws, entrenched social norms, and practical obstacles continue to increase risks of violence and revictimisation.

The bridging systematic gaps interactive discussion was held in line with the priority theme of CSW70, bringing together policymakers, legal experts, civil society and survivor advocates to confront the structural barriers that keep justice out of reach for women and girls worldwide.

At the CSW70 event, "Bridging Systemic Gaps: Advancing Justice for All Women and Girls", leaders and experts examined why formal and informal justice systems continue to fail women and girls and what it will take to fix them.

The UN Women Executive Director explained that across both formal and informal justice systems, the gaps are stark – and women and girls bear the cost, a UN Women statement made available to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA CONSULT) stated.

“Legal-needs surveys, qualitative studies, and community-based justice work consistently point to the same pressure points: family law and personal status, gender-based violence, employment and labour rights, and administrative justice,” she stated.

Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs of Switzerland, stated that “When women and girls cannot access justice, inequality deepens, and impunity persists.

“The challenge before us now is to move from recognition to action – to ensure that commitments made at the national and international levels result in tangible, lasting improvements in women’s and girls’ access to justice.”

Closing the justice gap, participants agreed, requires more than legal reform alone. It demands political will, institutional change, and sustained support for the autonomous feminist movements and civil society organisations working every day to make rights real.

The panellists shared promising practices in improving women’s and girls’ access to justice across a range of contexts, including in post-conflict and crisis settings and emerging digital justice mechanisms, as well as traditional or customary justice systems, which in many communities remain the primary — and sometimes only — avenue through which women and girls seek remedies.

Participants called for justice systems redesigned around survivors' needs: specialised units in police stations and courts, one-stop centres for gender-based violence response, and mobile services to reach women in rural areas.

The discussion also spotlighted often-overlooked barriers. Women with disabilities face acute obstacles when making complaints, including the absence of sign language interpreters and other accessibility gaps. Women in institutional settings were highlighted as another group whose access to justice remains severely limited.

Intersectionality was a recurring theme, as was the financing of women's movements. As one participant noted, philanthropy is often what stands between law on the books and law on the ground — a fragile bridge in urgent need of structural support.

The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection of Ghana is championing the government's accomplishment on the gender front, while representatives from various gender-based civil society organisations, including women's rights activists, are expected to project challenges to gender equality.

Ghana aims to showcase its gender mainstreaming policies and share its progress in combating gender-based violence and hold a side event to project the nation, as well as use the platform to project the various traditional and national wear.

The CSW70 session will also address opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women.

CSW, the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, was established by Council Resolution 11(II) of June 21, 1946.

CSW, since its establishment, has served as an instrument in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

This Commission on the Status of Women is a beacon of multilateralism at a time when the world needs multilateralism most. This commission offers the promise of gender equality and women’s rights, that great, undisputable accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda.

It has, for 70 years, steered us onto a shared path of concrete change to surmount the challenges of inequalities, violence against women, conflicts, new technologies, climate change, food insecurity, financing, democratic erosion, and more.

   Comments0