By Prof. Dr. Bharat H. Desai
I. INTRODUCTION
March 08, 2025, the 50th anniversary of the UN’s International Women’s Day (IWD), also coincides with 30 years after the historic 1995 Beijing Declaration and Program of Action that solemnly resolved “to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of all humanity”. It was endorsed by 189 countries. Now, after three decades, almost one-fourth countries are facing a backlash and backsliding. A series of factors such as economic instability, the climate crisis, rising conflicts and political pushback have contributed to a worsening global landscape for gender equality. In his annual 2025 IWD message, the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres observed that “When women and girls can rise, we all thrive…(yet) instead of mainstreaming equal rights, we are seeing the mainstreaming of misogyny.”
II. GLOBAL STATE OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS
The above scenario underscores the graphic reality that in spite of the advocacy by the entire UN system, the UN member states, international developmental agencies and the civil society groups, it has not been possible to make a desired change in securing women’s rights. The UN Women Strategic Plan (2022-2025) adopted a three-pronged approach: (1) to promote coordination across the UN system (2) to support to member states in strengthening global norms and standards for gender equality and (3) to carry out operational activities at country and regional levels. With a paltry budget of US $ 1.03 billion (2024-2025; projected contributions), the UN Women faces a herculean task to turn the tide. Significantly, the Pact for the Future (UNGA resolution 79/1 of September 22, 2024), stated: “None of our goals can be achieved without the full, safe, equal and meaningful participation and representation of all women in political and economic life. We reaffirm our commitment to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action” (paragraph 15). Ironically, notwithstanding all solemn declarations at the UN summits and inter-governmental confabulations, Goal 5 (Gender Equality and empowerment of all women and girls) of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) faces dismal prospects due to very slow progress or has regressed below the 2015 baseline.
Thus, the global state of women is worsening. It is reflected in spine-chilling figures including plight of 2 billion women without any social protection coverage, 612 million women and girls living in global conflict zones and 393 million women and girls mired in extreme poverty. In growing worldwide gender-based violence, a women or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a family member or an intimate partner. There has been 50% rise in conflict related sexual violence wherein 95% victim-survivors are women and girls. In fact, the home has also become the “most dangerous place for women and girls”. As per the 2024 report published by the UNODC, 60.2% women were killed in 2023 by their intimate partners (45%) or other family members (55%). Gender based violence is a global challenge (Author: The Tribune, November 02, 2021). The ‘femicide’ reflects entrenched gender-based hatred and sadistic mindsets that assume “most brutal and extreme manifestation of violence against women and girls”.
III. REVITALIZING THE UN SYSTEM PROCESSES
The 69th session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) will be held in New York during March 10 to 21, 2025. It was established by the ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946. The CSW has been instrumental in promoting women’s and girls' rights, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. At Beijing+30, CSW 69 will do a crucial stocktaking process by reviewing implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. The digital technologies have been a cause of concern for the CSW. Barring women in a few privileged settings, well-educated women and otherwise already empowered women, the digital technologies have heightened already serious gender inequalities, discrimination and violence against women.
Since the adoption of the resolution 1325 of October 31, 2000, the UN Security Council (UNSC) has been periodically addressing the agenda item “women, peace and security” (WPS). Several UNSC members have sought to prioritize the WPS agenda during their monthly presidency. Now after 25 years and adoption of some ten additional UNSC resolutions later, WPS agenda has become one of the main thematic pillars of the UNSC’s work. Moreover, the UNSG’s 14 annual reports (between 2011 to 2024) on the implementation of the WPS agenda (since resolution 1325/ 2000; and requested by the UNSC Presidential Statement; S/PRST/2010/22 of October 26, 2010), as well as 13 reports (2012-2024) on conflict related sexual violence, have provided a remarkable corpus of action on the issue. The 2024 UNSG report (S/2024/671 of September 24, 2024) has graphically underscored the gravity of the challenge faced by women and girls: “Amid record levels of armed conflict and violence, progress made over decades is vanishing before our eyes. Generational gains in women’s rights hang in the balance around the world, undercutting the transformative potential of women’s leadership and inclusion in the pursuit of peace”.
The WPS agenda of the UNSC has been justified on the ground that due to the armed conflicts, women and girls face the consequences including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Rape as a weapon of war (Author SIS Blog: March 11, 2023; June 22, 2022) has been widely used by all the combatants (State and non-State). It has been analyzed in this author’s scholarly work [Sexual and Gender Based Violence in International Law (Singapore: Springer: English 2022; German 2023] as well as highlighted in the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize awarded (Denis Mukhwege and Nadia Murad) for “efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict".
IV. CONCLUSION: ROAD AHEAD
In view of the above global state of play, the ideational and cutting-edge scholarly works need to be geared up to provide concrete solutions for protection of rights of women and girls. As the things stand today, it will take 131 years to bridge the global gender gap. Between 1995 and 2024, 1,531 legal reforms around the world have sought to advance gender equality. Yet the grim scenario shows deep rooted patriarchy and misogyny at work since it largely remains a question of mindsets. The legalese, policy and institutional measures (commissions on women and human rights etc) per se will not be able to turn the tide in near future unless the empowered women themselves feel obliged to ‘light the lamp’ and carry the torch forward. Many of the empowered women get coopted by the patriarchy and they pursue the same path as male counterparts. Hence, mere adding the numbers will not result in empathy and upliftment of other disadvantaged women and girls. As a research supervisor, this author knows firsthand, a large number of female students, barring honorable exceptions, adopt the same attitude of male students for personal advancement. They abhor mentoring and reaching out to others. As a consequence, it remains a big challenge to carry forward the torch to empower other disadvantaged women and girls. Thus, the desired change will be accelerated if the empowered women take the lead to become the agents of change the world needs for securing our common future.
This is an Original Contribution to the SIS Blog
Prof. (Dr.) Bharat H. Desai is the former Chairperson and Professor of International Law at the Centre for International Legal Studies (SIS, JNU), who served as a member of the Official Indian Delegations to various multilateral negotiations (2002-2008), initiated & coordinated the futuristic knowledge initiatives for the SIS Faculty Wall of Honor (2023-24), the Inter-University Consortium: JNU; Jammu; Kashmir; Sikkim (2012-2020) and the Making SIS Visible (2008-2013) as well as contributes as the Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Policy and Law (Sage: Amsterdam).