Gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment are non-negotiable

Every year, as I look back on the International Women's Day and month, I find myself pausing to reflect—not just on the progress we have made but also on the battles we are still fighting. As someone who has spent the past three decades advocating for gender equality and shaping policies that challenge the status quo, the theme for the 2025 International Women’s Day/Month, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA) has provoked a deeply personal reflection, as we celebrated progress and called for more action. In 1995, when 189 governments adopted the BPA at the Fourth World Conference on Women, it was a turning point. For the first time, the world had a comprehensive blueprint to advance the rights of women and girls across 12 critical areas from education and economic empowerment to political representation, human rights and ending violence. It was not just a declaration of intent; it was a promise to dismantle the structural barriers holding women back, in line with the stipulations of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). That moment gave hope; hope that our generation would witness a world where women’s voices would no longer be marginalized. Hope that gender-based violence would become a relic of the past. Hope that equality would not just be an aspiration but a lived reality, as empowered women would have their rights respected and their contributions to development in both the productive and reproductive spaces recognized and valued. But the 2025 International Women's Day global theme, For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment, came as a reminder, a wake-up call for deeper reflection on the shifts, attacks and push backs on these concepts, values and principles. Governments, CSOs, human rights and gender experts, of whom I am one, have worked on these for decades, generating results benefiting everyone. Yet, despite great progress, enormous challenges persist, delaying the achievements of agreed targets. The key baffling questions are: Why does gender inequality persist? Why so much pushback? Why the easy erosion of gains each time the world, nations or communities face the slightest challenge? Is GEWE a political, social, economic and/or cultural threat? Thirty years on, undeniable strides have been made. Women now hold the highest offices in politics, business, and science. Girls’ access to education has improved globally. Legal frameworks protecting women’s rights have been strengthened. Countries like Rwanda have set a global benchmark, with 63.8 percent of parliamentary seats and 55 percent of cabinet positions occupied by women unprecedented in history. Many more successes have been registered in women’s economic and cultural empowerment. This and more notwithstanding, the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) that held in New York March 10 to 21, 2025, reaffirmed through a Political Declaration that ‘while progress is undeniable, no country has fully achieved gender equality’. Yet, instead of rallying all forces to move forward, the world seems to be at a crossroad with growing push backs against women’s rights and gender equality. We are witnessing an unsettling resurgence of regressive policies that threaten the rights that have been fought so hard to secure. From restrictions on reproductive rights to the rising tide of gender-based violence, hard-won gains are under attack. Thus, globally, statistics paint a sobering reality. Nearly one in three women worldwide will experience violence in her lifetime. One in ten still lives in extreme poverty. Climate change threatens to push 236 million more women and girls into hunger by 2030, twice as many as men. These are not just statistics. They represent lives, women and girls whose futures are being shaped by forces beyond their control. Reasons for these persistent challenges include negative cultural norms and stereotypes which continue to reinforce gender-based discrimination, exclusion and exploitation. Age-long economic and legal structures remain stacked against women, limiting their autonomy. In too many places, violence against women remains not just prevalent but normalized. Most critically, investments in women’s rights and empowerment keep dwindling, especially in the current fiscal constraining context. All this is not due to a failure of advocacy. It is a failure of systems that have allowed gender inequality to persist, often under the guise of tradition and conservatism. As the UN Secretary General H.E António Guterres puts it; Women’s rights are being pushed back, but we refuse to go back. As we conclude the IWD 2025, we must ask ourselves: What will it take to turn commitments into irreversible change? The answer is simple: ‘unwavering action backed by commensurate resources! We must invest in policies that not only protect women’s rights but also actively dismantle structural and systemic barriers. We must strengthen legal frameworks and hold duty-bearers and perpetrators of violence against women and girls accountable. We must equip women and girls with the tools they need, not just to survive but to thrive. Gender equality and women’s rights are not just goals, values and principles to be upheld and respected. They are non-negotiable! Complacency is the greatest threat to progress. It is not enough to celebrate women’s achievements once a year. Gender equality is a permanent struggle, until won. It requires relentless commitment from policymakers, private sector leaders, and communities. It requires men and boys to be active allies. And most importantly, it requires women and girls to claim their power and refuse to be silenced. Evidence abounds on what is possible when governments and institutions commit to gender equality. In Rwanda, gender-responsive governance keeps transforming policies into real progress. The newly adopted National Strategy for Transformation (NST2) incorporates gender equality as a national priority. This is a demonstration of a country poised to keep pushing gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment forward! This remains to be implemented, monitored and results tracked. To push forward, we must pursue bold, strategic actions. We must strengthen institutions, ensuring gender equality is woven into national systems and backed by sustainable financing. At the regional level, the recent adoption of the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls marks a historic step forward. Complementing global frameworks like the CEDAW, the Maputo Protocol, and the SDGs, we now have an arsenal of tools to drive action. What remains is the courage to use them effectively. As we close the women’s month reflections on March 31st and look to take forward the call to action, let us make a bold choice: to be louder, to be firmer, and to refuse to settle for anything less than full equality and empowerment for All Women and Girls! CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action were not just moments in history. They are a great movement for ‘Women’s rights, equality and empowerment, and that movement is far from over! Permit me conclude in the words of the UN Women Executive Director-Ms. Sima Bahous who says, The future is calling, and it is calling for equality. Let’s answer with action. The author is the UN Women Country Representative in Rwanda.

Opinions

Gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment are non-negotiable