Note: This story is part of a series of coverage from the first week of the 2026 UN Women’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70). Read Day 1 and Day 2.

The third day of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) featured a day-long, two-part session with parliamentarians discussing women’s political representation and access to justice. The day concluded with a program discussing the growing threat of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV).

Parliamentary Progress

To open the day, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women unveiled the 2026 Women in Politics Map, revealing a mixed global picture of women’s political participation.

Women now hold 27.5 percent of parliamentary seats globally, and the number of countries with gender-parity or women-majority parliaments grew from six to seven. Countries that have reached parity or have a women-majority parliament are Andorra, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Rwanda, Nicaragua and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Several countries that held elections in 2025 recorded gains, including Kyrgyzstan (+12.9 percent), St. Vincent and the Grenadines (+12.3 percent), and St. Lucia (+9.1 percent).

However, these gains are not universal. The number of female parliamentary speakers has dropped worldwide, from approximately 27 percent to 19.9 percent. Yemen, Oman and Tuvalu currently have no women in any chamber of parliament. According to the representative for Luxembourg, it would take 75 years to reach 50 percent representation globally at the current rate of about 0.3 percent per year.

IPU President Dr. Tulia Ackson stated matter-of-factly: “When half of humanity is silenced or pushed out of the places where decisions are made, democracies fall short of their promise.”

Making Women Count, Not Just Counting Women

Petra Bayr, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, drew a sharp distinction between numerical representation and meaningful participation. “Gender-sensitive parliaments are not just about numbers,” she said. “Making women count is more important than counting women.”

She outlined three concrete areas where parliaments must act: adopting electoral reforms that deliver parity, making political environments safe for women, and transforming parliamentary institutions themselves, including making them compatible with caregiving responsibilities. The underlying data is cause for alarm. A 2018 IPU study of women parliamentarians in Europe found that more than 85 percent had suffered psychological violence, 47 percent had received death, rape, or beating threats, and 25 percent had experienced sexual violence.

Speakers from Korea, France, Guyana, Chad, and Moldova each shared legislative and structural reforms underway in their countries, from mandatory gender-sensitivity training for lawmakers to financial penalties for political parties that fail to meet candidate parity thresholds. Moldova’s representative highlighted that the country now has its first female president, Maia Sandu, with women holding 40 percent of parliamentary seats, and has recently codified femicide as a specific criminal offense.

Gender Justice Requires More Than Laws on the Books

A recurring theme throughout the day was the gap between legislative progress and the realities women are facing. UN Women Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda was direct: “Laws are not enough. They are critical, but they need implementation.”

Antonia Kirkland of Equality Now pointed to concrete legal reforms, including Kyrgyzstan’s new Labor Code, which removed restrictions barring women from over 400 high-paying professions. She also noted that the number of U.S. states permitting child marriage dropped from 37 to 34 in a single year, though she emphasized that 34 is still far too many. She noted that the UN characterizes such marriages as “sanctioned rape” and that a change in phraseology is important for progress.

UN Women’s Equality for Women and Girls by 2030 Strategy was also discussed, focusing on five priority areas: women’s economic empowerment, minimum marriage age, nationality rights, consent-based rape laws, and family relations. Recent wins under the initiative include Colombia equalizing the minimum marriage age at 18, Gabon removing restrictions on women’s employment, and Bahrain repealing provisions that allowed rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their survivor.

The Digital Frontier

A session entitled “Policing the Pixel: Gender, Tech, and Justice” zeroed in on the rapidly escalating threat of technology-facilitated gender-based violence.

Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, made an urgent call: “A screen must never be a hiding place from justice.” He described a digital world where a teenage girl’s classmate creates and shares a fake video of her, where a member of parliament receives hundreds of rape threats after speaking out against violence against women, and where a head of state declines to seek a second term because of threats against her and her family.

Last week, the Council of Europe issued new recommendations to its 46 member states aimed at ensuring accountability for technology-facilitated violence against women. Berset connected the moment directly to broader democratic stakes: “When women are pushed out of politics, journalism, and activism, democracy itself becomes less democratic.”

On the legislative front, the UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Alex Davies-Jones announced a new law requiring tech companies to remove abusive images, including AI-generated deepfakes, within 48 hours, or face fines of up to 10 percent of global revenue and criminal charges for senior executives. The law builds on the UK’s Online Safety Act and uses hash-matching technology to create a “report once, protected everywhere” system, a model already used to combat child sexual abuse material and terrorist content.

The Inter-American system, meanwhile, adopted a Model Law on Gender-Based Digital Violence in December 2025, offering a comprehensive framework for countries across the Americas. The model law has a stated goal of serving as:

a normative, political, and educational tool intended to guide legislative harmonization, the design of public policies, diligent action by justice systems, inter-State cooperation, private-sector responsibility, and the strengthening of community and feminist capacities to protect and guarantee the right of all women and girls to a life free from violence—including in digital environments.

Law enforcement perspectives highlighted that victims of TFGBV often don’t recognize what’s happening to them as a crime, and that stalking via digital means is now present in 8 out of 10 cases involving femicide. Google’s Global Policy Lead on Human Rights, Bahaa El-Taweal, outlined the tech giant’s approach: strong enforceable policies, safety-by-design product testing, and partnerships with survivor organizations, including the cross-industry image-hashing initiative StopNCII.org.

A Fight for Progress Waged on Two Fronts

Day 3 made one thing clear: the fight for gender equality is being waged simultaneously in legislative chambers and digital platforms. Progress for women’s rights is real, but fragile, and increasingly receiving backlash due to institutional inertia and a digital environment that amplifies violent speech.