Advocacy & Lobbying
A safe city is not only measured by the quality of its lighting, transport, clean streets, or accessible public services. For women and girls across the globe, safety is often measured in smaller, daily decisions:
Which route feels safest during the day and after dark? Can a woman market vendor sell her produce without fear of sexual violence and intimidation? Can girls walk to and from school without being sexually harassed? Can a woman wait for transport, use a public toilet, study, exercise, meet friends, or take part in public life without always having to calculate the risk of violence?
Fear – and experience – of sexual violence affect whether women and girls can move freely through public spaces, earn an income, stay in school, access services in person or online, and join community life.
That is the starting point of UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces for Women and Girls Global initiative, which began in 2011, supported by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, and further securing support from other donor partners such as the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand the Netherlands, GIZ, and Poland.
Fifteen years since its inception, the initiative now spans comprehensive programming in 75 cities in 36 countries, involving partnerships with local and national governments, women’s rights organizations, community groups, businesses, and other partners to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women and girls in public spaces.
The lesson from those cities is clear: There is no single blueprint. A safe city is not created by one campaign, one law, one bus route, or one redesign project. It is built when spaces for women and girls’ participation are prioritized and their voices are heard. It is also built when women’s lived experiences shape all types of policies, when public spaces are planned with their recommendations, and when communities challenge the idea that sexual harassment is inevitable.
The military escalation in the Middle East has had a devastating impact on women and girls across the region, and far beyond.
In just two months, the military strikes – including in populated areas and residential zones – have killed and injured thousands of civilians. Homes and critical infrastructure have been completely decimated, and the destruction has displaced millions of people.
UN Women’s ongoing research shows how women and girls are uniquely and disproportionately impacted by conflict and displacement. Right now, the systems that support the health, safety and livelihoods of women and girls in the Middle East are straining – or collapsing entirely – under the pressure of the escalating violence.
While much of the military operations are concentrated in Iran and Lebanon, strikes, displacement and infrastructure damage across the Middle East are disrupting humanitarian access in already fragile areas like Gaza and Yemen. The conflict – which is disrupting global supply-chains in the Strait of Hormuz – is raising energy prices and food insecurity across the world.
For women and girls, these crises are interconnected.
It was during an air attack in eastern Afghanistan that 30-year-old Najeeba* felt her labour pains begin. Around her, families were already on the move, fleeing renewed hostilities along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. But her baby wasn’t going to wait.
Just six months earlier, the ground had shaken beneath her feet when a massive earthquake devastated the region. Now, it was the skies that she feared.
“There was no safe place”, she recalled, as the conflict reached the camp where she had been living with other families displaced by the earthquake. “Aircraft were flying overhead, and my children were extremely frightened; whenever they heard the sound, they would cry and scream.”
With her husband, she packed up their tent and few remaining belongings. Najeeba gave birth in a Red Crescent clinic, then climbed into a rented mini truck with her newborn daughter, six other children aged two to 11, and her husband, and escaped to a new camp in the Maza Dara Valley, in Nurgal district.
The media does more than report the news. It shapes the way people think, influences social norms, and creates the narratives through which we understand people, events, and society. While the media has always played this role, its influence is greater today than ever before. We go to sleep after consuming information online and wake up checking news and social media on our phones. Media has become an integral part of our daily lives, making it one of the most powerful institutions in shaping public attitudes and behavior.
The media's influence can be seen across many areas of society. In Nepal, for example, menstruation was long treated as a taboo, and in some communities women were isolated during their menstrual periods as part of cultural or religious practices. Years of media reporting, public discussion, and advocacy gradually changed this narrative. Today, menstruation is increasingly recognized as a normal biological process, and menstrual health has become part of the public conversation. Likewise, Chhaupadi, once accepted as a cultural tradition, is now widely recognized as a harmful practice and a violation of women's rights.
A similar shift has taken place in the way domestic violence is understood. In Nepal, there is a saying that conflict between a husband and wife is like a straw fire—it burns quickly and dies out just as quickly. For many years, this belief encouraged people to treat domestic violence as a private family matter. Today, that perception has changed. Domestic violence is increasingly recognized as a crime, a human rights issue, and a matter of public concern. Despite this progress, it remains one of the most common forms of violence against women in Nepal. More than 20,000 cases are reported to the Nepal Police each year, yet the actual number is likely to be much higher, as many survivors continue to suffer in silence without reporting the abuse. These examples demonstrate that the media does more than report events—it has the power to challenge harmful beliefs, reshape public opinion, and inspire social change.
If the media can help transform public attitudes on issues such as menstruation and domestic violence, it can also play a decisive role in changing the narratives surrounding women in politics and leadership. The question is not whether the media has the power to influence social norms—it clearly does. The real question is how that power is used.
There are interviews that simply answer questions. Then there are conversations that leave a lasting imprint on the heart. Speaking with Mildred Ngesa, a transformational coach, inspirational speaker, media and communications specialist, women’s rights advocate, and author, was one of those moments.
Throughout the conversation, one message resonated above all else: transformation is possible.
For Ngesa, transformation is not an abstract concept. It is the force that has driven her work across Africa, where she has witnessed women overcoming barriers, challenging stereotypes, and reshaping societies. Her unwavering belief that change can happen continues to fuel her commitment to empowering women and girls.
“My motivation is transformation because I know it is possible,” she said with conviction. “Across the continent, I have seen women transform communities and influence change. It can be done.”
Her words come at a time when women across Africa continue to confront systemic barriers to leadership, education, economic participation, and representation. Yet rather than dwell on these challenges, Ngesa chooses to focus on possibility.
She believes that passion and commitment are the driving forces behind lasting social change.
“Unless we have passion and commitment, we cannot sustain the push to create a level playing field for everyone,” she observed.
The Transformative Power of Media
As someone whose professional journey has been deeply rooted in the media, Ngesa spoke passionately about journalism’s unique ability to shape societies.
“My journey has been in media, and I understand its power,” she explained. “Whether traditional or digital, media has the power to transform lives. But we must use it responsibly.”
For her, ethical journalism is far more than reporting facts. It is about giving voice to those who are often unheard, challenging harmful narratives, and creating opportunities for women and girls to thrive.
She warned that when media spaces are weakened, whether through censorship, misinformation, or unethical practices, it is women and other vulnerable groups who often suffer the greatest consequences.
Protecting Journalism as a Public Good
One of the strongest themes emerging from the discussion was the urgent need to safeguard media freedom.
Ngesa described journalism as a sacred public trust founded on ethics, truth, fairness, objectivity, and justice.
“We have an obligation to protect this media space,” she emphasized. “It is where truth, fairness and justice are pursued.”
While acknowledging the rapid growth of digital media across Africa, she maintained that professional journalism remains indispensable.
Traditional media, she argued, continues to provide the credibility and accountability that societies depend upon, particularly at a time when misinformation spreads rapidly online.
For women journalists, protecting this space is especially important because media remains one of the most powerful tools for advancing gender equality.
Understanding History to Shape the Future
Ngesa also reflected on the importance of understanding history.
Women and girls, she noted, have long experienced exclusion and discrimination. Yet today’s generation has the opportunity and the responsibility to change that narrative.
She finds hope in seeing more women occupying leadership positions across politics, business, media, and civil society.
“The fact that I can stand here, speak about these issues, and meet women who are leading at the highest levels tells me that change is possible.”
Her vision extends beyond the present generation. She dreams of a future where girls will grow up believing leadership is normal not exceptional—for women.
Gender has become one of the defining political battlegrounds of our time.
Across continents, debates about gender identity, bodily autonomy, sexuality, healthcare, family structures, education, sports, and public participation have moved from the margins of political discourse to its very center. Yet rather than expanding rights and protections, many governments, institutions, and powerful actors are increasingly using gender as a tool for political polarization, stigma, control, and criminalization.
Today, gender-diverse people, women, LGBTQ+ communities, and other sexually marginalized groups find themselves confronting growing efforts to criminalize, censor, or restrict fundamental aspects of their lives. Access to gender-affirming healthcare is under attack globally. Gender-based violence continues at alarming rates. LGBTQ+ communities face renewed discrimination and harassment. Hard-won rights that once appeared secure are being challenged, rolled back, or reframed as threats to society itself.
The consequences are visible in nearly every space we inhabit.
Over the past two decades, the structures of social communication and public discourse have undergone profound transformations. The digital sphere has become a contested arena and a central space where identities are produced and symbolic and social meanings are shaped. It has also become a place where new subcultures emerge and existing hierarchies are often reinforced. Within this landscape, feminist and political movements have created counter-public spheres that enabled women and marginalized groups to break the monopoly of power over meaning, expose patriarchal violence, and build transnational networks of solidarity.
Such networks helped dismantle the ideological structures that sustained violence and victim-blaming for decades. The broader shifts in societal values unfolded alongside a surge of revolutionary consciousness across the Global South, which exposed the colonial and capitalist structures underpinning political and social life. This awakening was met, however, with intensified surveillance, repression, and the mobilization of power to resist change.
Digital surveillance cannot be understood simply as the use of technology by those in power. It reflects the transformation of the digital sphere itself into a disciplinary apparatus that reproduces colonial and neo-fascist modes of control. Once absorbed into a capitalist ownership structure monopolized by transnational corporations, the internet ceased to be a neutral space for knowledge or communication. It became an infrastructure of domination, where data and algorithms are deployed to sort, control, and exclude.
Algorithmic architectures reinforce hierarchies of language, gender, race, and class. Through mechanisms of digital moderation that reflect the logic of white, masculine, and capitalist privilege, feminist and anti-authoritarian content is systematically excluded. In this way, algorithms have become ideological tools that silence and erase voices deviating from the dominant norms enforced by structures of power.
Despite the progress made during decades of work by women’s rights organizations and democratic institutions, gender equality is still a long way off. There is a growing understanding that gender equality will only be achieved when men and women work together towards full gender equality and equal respect for the rights of all individuals and groups.
This paper presents nine policy and good practice recommendations to support diverse audiences in their work to include men in building a more gender-equal, peaceful, prosperous and democratic world.
Authors: Jennifer Klein, Rachel Vogelstein, and Lauren Hoffman
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the 1995 United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, a watershed moment in the fight for women’s rights, where 189 nations adopted an ambitious Platform for Action to achieve the full and equal participation of women and girls. While the past three decades have produced important gains, this work remains unfinished, and new challenges threaten to reverse progress for women and girls. This report, produced by the Women’s Initiative at Columbia's Institute of Global Politics and GWL Voices, provides an actionable roadmap to advance the full and equal participation of women and girls in the twenty-first century—including in the areas of democracy and human rights, technology, economic participation, and conflict and climate. The report also proposes key levers designed to accelerate the pace of change, including innovative financing, institutional leadership and reform, coalition building, and improved data and research. It concludes with a call to accelerate action towards fulfilling the Beijing Platform and realizing the promise of women’s human rights once and for all.
A new report from the Environmental Voter Project (EVP), shared first with The 19th, finds that far more women than men are listing climate and environmental issues as their top priority in voting.
The nonpartisan nonprofit, which focuses on tailoring get out the vote efforts to low-propensity voters who they’ve identified as likely to list climate and environmental issues as a top priority, found that women far outpace men on the issue. Overall 62 percent of these so-called climate voters are women, compared to 37 percent of men. The gender gap is largest among young people, Black and Indigenous voters.
The nonprofit identifies these voters through a predictive model built based on surveys it conducts among registered voters. It defines a climate voter as someone with at least an 85 percent likelihood of listing climate change or the environment as their number one priority.
“At a time when other political gender gaps, such as [presidential] vote choice gender gaps, are staying relatively stable, there’s something unique going on with gender and public opinion about climate change,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the organization.
Read here the full article published by The 19th News on 14 April 2025.
Image by The 19th News
As smoke from wildfires in Canada smothered New York City in a polluted haze in June 2023, some worried patients called the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center asking if it was safe to come in for their appointments. Was the outside air so unhealthy that they should postpone their visits? Pregnant women expressed concern about how the heightened pollution might affect them and their fetuses. If they did venture outside for any reason, what masks should they wear?
The doctors understood the fears but did not want women to postpone visits, especially if the patients were pregnant. “If people cancel their appointments during pregnancy, it can put them and their baby at risk of health problems,” says Blair Wylie, MD, an obstetrician who had joined Columbia eight months prior to lead its new Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health.
The department changed some appointments to virtual.
Wildfire smoke was not the environmental risk that Wylie expected to address when she moved to New York after leading maternal-fetal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “I was thinking of heat waves. I was thinking of floods,” she says.
Read here the full article published by the Association of American Medical Colleges on 6 June 2024.
Image by the Association of American Medical Colleges
New York, New York
March 10, 2025
AS PREPARED
The United States thanks the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and co-facilitators Cabo Verde and Costa Rica, as well as all participating delegations and civil society partners, for their efforts in developing the Political Declaration.
While we are not a CSW member this year, we engaged in negotiations because the United States strongly supports protecting women and girls, defending their rights, and promoting their empowerment.
We are pleased the Declaration focuses on respecting, protecting, and promoting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all women and girls. In signing Executive Orders to defend Americans from unhealthy and extremist gender ideology, President Trump has made clear his Administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
We also appreciate that the text addresses the need to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against women and girls. The Administration of President Trump has committed to protecting women by, among other things, curbing mass migration and securing borders. Violence against women and girls is rampant on migratory routes. Further, as we have seen in many tragic cases in the United States, women and girls are victimized by foreign criminals operating individually or in gangs. We must work against the open-borders ideology that tolerate such assaults on the rights of women.
However, several aspects of the text make it impossible for the United States to support the Declaration. These include, but are not limited to:
Language to Protect Women and Girls
It is the policy of the United States to use clear and accurate language that recognizes women are biologically female and men are biologically male. It is important to acknowledge the biological reality of sex to support the needs and perspectives of women and girls. We are disappointed the Political Declaration did not focus on the needs and perspectives of women and girls through precise terminology.
The United States supports the elimination of discrimination on the basis of all protected classes, including race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, and genetic information. We note the United States is not a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and interpret references to CEDAW as relevant to States Parties and the implementation of their obligations. The United States emphasizes that non-binding declarations such as this Political Declaration do not change the current state of conventional or customary international law or imply that States must join or implement obligations under international instruments to which they are not a party.
Freedom of Opinion and Expression
With regard to paragraph 15(j), we note that in recent years governments have censored speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech. Under the guise of combatting “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” governments infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of Americans. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.
Right to Development
We regret the Political Declaration includes language on the purported “right to development,” as this term does not have an internationally agreed meaning. We cannot accept references to this as a “right.”
The 2030 Agenda
Another concern we have about this resolution is its reaffirmation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although framed in neutral language, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs advance a program of soft global governance that is inconsistent with U.S. sovereignty and adverse to the rights and interests of Americans.
In the last U.S. election, the mandate from the American people was clear: the government of the United States must refocus on the interests of Americans. We must care first and foremost for our own – that is our moral and civic duty. President Trump also set a clear and overdue course correction on “gender” and climate ideology, which pervade the SDGs.
Put simply, globalist endeavors like the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs lost at the ballot box. Therefore, the United States rejects and denounces the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, and we will no longer reaffirm them as a matter of course.
Equal Pay for Equal Work
The United States understands the intention of the inclusion of “equal pay for work of equal value” to promote pay equality between men and women, and accepts the formulation on that basis. The United States works to achieve pay equality by observing the principle of “equal pay for equal work.”
Temporary Special Measures
With respect to so-called “temporary special measures,” and other measures intended to achieve parity for women and girls, the United States opposes the use of quotas, targets, or goals for participation based on sex. It is the policy of the United States to protect the civil rights of all Americans and to promote individual initiative, excellence, and hard work. Every citizen, including women and girls, should have an equal right and opportunities, without discrimination, to take part in the conduct of public affairs.
Climate Change
The United States does not support the inclusion of references to climate change in this declaration.
Original post available here.