NewsThe United States was the lone nation to vote against the Agreed Conclusions by the UN Commission on the State of Women (CSW) that were officially adopted Thursday.
The US took issue with language in the document related to abortion rights, artificial intelligence regulation and what the White House called “gender ideology,” offering draft amendments that were swiftly rejected.
The CSW’s conference theme for its 70th session was “[e]nsuring 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.” Representatives of member states, UN entities, and accredited non-governmental organizations from around the world attended the two-week conference that concluded Thursday.
The Agreed Conclusions offer a roadmap for a more inclusive governance to support peace and social cohesion and prevent future violations by focusing on reviewing and amending discriminatory laws, including any related to child marriage, family law, and property rights, as well as implementing stronger measures to protect women and girls against violence both online and offline.
Many delegates pleaded for more advocacy for climate refugees and the effects of climate change on women and children, particularly those in war-torn countries.
The contested vote broke a near seven-decade streak in which the committee’s document, refined and negotiated ahead of and during its annual two-week conference, had always been adopted by consensus among the 45 elected country members.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has vocalized opposition to so-called “gender ideology extremism,” and has pushed forward an anti-abortion agenda from his first days in his second term in office.
Many nations, including Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia, voiced support for the US opposition to certain provisions as part of the adopted report, even abstaining from supporting the adoption of the document in an initial vote at the beginning of the conference on March 9.
But all six countries that initially abstained ultimately voted in favor of approving the document to show support for the ultimate cause of justice for all women and girls around the world.
In her closing remarks UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director at CSW Sima Bahous said:
Without women’s equal, meaningful participation, without their equal access to justice, to economic opportunity, to a life free from violence, without their leadership in governments, the private sector, in peace negotiations—our nations will not progress. Reaffirming this very simple truth, pushing it forward through agreed conclusions, is the purpose of this Commission—and you rose to the challenge.
Conference organizers noted the agreement among the nations comes following a recent report by UN Women that found “no country has yet achieved full legal equality between women and men.”