“The poison of patriarchy is back and is back with a vengeance,” United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres told the opening of the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN in New York on Monday.

The CSW takes place amid a major global backlash against women’s rights, from the Taliban banning Afghan women from public life to the Trump administration in the United States pushing back against “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) which has resulted in cuts to research on women’s health. 

“Misogyny is on the rise, and so, violence and discrimination,” said Sima Bahous, who heads UN Women, noting that “domestic and ODA [official development assistance] allocations to gender equality remain woefully inadequate and, in some cases, are being cut altogether”. 

Declaration passed despite US, Russian objections

The CSW’s political declaration was adopted by consensus on Monday. And despite earlier reports that the US and Russia had tried to purge a clause that encouraged member states from nominating women candidates for the UN Secretary-General position and  President of the General Assembly, that clause survived.

So did commitments to “gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”, and the “accelerated implementation” of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the first global roadmap for gender equality that was adopted 30 years ago.

Bahous also commended the 159 member states that have affirmed their support for the Beijing Declaration in national reports.

Despite the backlash, there has also been progress in the past 30 years, she noted: “Today, more girls are in school. More women are in parliaments, in boardrooms, in the judiciary. Maternal mortality has fallen. Legal barriers have been dismantled. Policies to protect and advance women’s rights are advancing. Violence against women and girls is widely recognized as a global scourge.” 

‘Calculated cut’ to funds

Françoise Moudouthe, Chief Executive Officer of the African Women’s Development Fund, told the opening plenary that “the decision by several governments and philanthropic actors to cut funding for gender equality in the past few years is a calculated blow to women’s access to education, healthcare, economic independence, political participation and bodily autonomy”. 

“The recent funding cuts by just two governments and two private philanthropic donors to women’s rights organisations were recently estimated to around $730 million per year,” she added.

“We must immediately commit to protecting protecting gender equality for all, not with words but with resources,” Moudouthe stressed.

Bahous declared that: “We, the champions of gender equality, are not afraid of the pushback. We have faced it before. We have not backed down. And we will not back down.”

The proportion of women killed in wars had doubled over the past year alone, added Bahous, pointing to women’s and girls’ rights being “systematically stripping away” by climate change and conflicts in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Palestine, Gaza, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan and Ukraine.

Call for sanctions on Taliban

Meanwhile, at the UN Security Council meeting happening at the same time, Afghan lawyer Azadah Raz Mohammad urged the body to impose sanctions on all Taliban leaders who have committed human rights violations against Afghan women and girls, and not to lift sanctions, including travel bans, on those who are guilty of such crimes.  

“If the people of Afghanistan had been able to hold the Taliban accountable in 2001 and earlier, perhaps we would not have witnessed the Taliban’s violent return to power 20 years later,” Mohammad said, concluding: “If impunity is the disease, accountability is the antidote.”  

She also urged all member states to assist the International Criminal Court to pursue charges against all senior Taliban leaders who have committed acts of “gender persecution and other crimes against humanity, and war crimes” in Afghanistan since 2003.