Advocacy & Lobbying
Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya says Sri Lanka reaffirms its commitment to advancing the rights and well-being of women and girls, and to translating principles into practical action for equality and dignity.
“Nearly thirty years after the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing and the Beijing Platform for Action, we still draw on that comprehensive framework for gender equality. We have made real progress: female literacy has risen, maternal mortality has nearly halved, and global life expectancy has increased from 69 years in 1995 to 76 years in 2023. Yet serious gaps remain: women’s labour-force participation stands at just 48.7% compared with 73% for men; women account for only about 35% of graduates in science and technology; 47.8 million more women than men face moderate or severe food insecurity; and movement toward political parity is far too slow. All-round development of women is, therefore, a holistic process across education, health, the economy, politics, society, and culture, and it demands our continued commitment,” she said.
PM Harini Amarasuriya further emphasised Sri Lanka’s national commitments, including increasing women’s participation in leadership and decision-making to ensure meaningful representation at every level, and implementing the National Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2023–2027), in line with CEDAW and UNSCR 1325.
UN Women and the Global Cybersecurity Forum (GCF) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen women’s participation and leadership in cybersecurity and the digital economy. The agreement was signed during the GCF Annual Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The partnership marks a milestone in advancing the Beijing+30 Action Agenda and UN Women’s strategic commitment to ensuring that women and girls benefit equally from the digital revolution. Under the MoU, the two organizations agreed to increase women’s representation in cybersecurity through strategic alliances and digital amplification and host high-level convening and cross-learning mechanisms.
The collaboration will include joint high-level convenings, cross-learning events, and digital advocacy efforts under GCF’s Women Empowerment in Cybersecurity initiative and UN Women’s global programmes on innovation and technology.
According to GCF’s 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Report, women make up only 24 per cent of the global cybersecurity workforce, underscoring the need for stronger partnerships to create pathways for women to enter and thrive in this rapidly growing field.
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.
Nadi, Fiji – Over 30 women leaders, youth advocates, parliamentarians and gender equality champions from across the Pacific have gathered in Nadi, Fiji, for the WYDE | Women’s Leadership Regional Intergenerational Dialogue: Waves of Change – Pacific Women in Politics Across Generations, held from 30 September to 1 October 2025.
Convened by UN Women’s Fiji Multi-Country Office under the WYDE | Women’s Leadership initiative, the two-day dialogue brings together diverse voices to reflect on progress, share lived experiences and co-create strategies to advance women’s political participation across generations.
The event opened with remarks from Eseta Nadakuitavuki, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection, Fiji, who highlighted both progress and setbacks in women’s leadership in Fiji and across the Pacific, underscoring the urgent need to accelerate change.
“Fiji met and even surpassed the SDG 5.5 target in 2018 when women in Fiji made up 20 per cent of Parliament. But in our most recent election in 2022, women’s representation declined to just 10.9 per cent.”
“Women will only participate fully when we also address the intersecting issues of gender-based violence, unpaid work, economic exclusion and unequal access to communication,” said Ms. Nadakuitavuki.
During the two-day dialogue, panel discussions will reflect on the 30-year legacy of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Pacific Platform for Action. Breakout sessions will explore the role of social norms, legal frameworks and strategies to address gender-based violence in politics.
Full article here.
The policy, which is currently before Cabinet, seeks to recognize, reduce, redistribute, and reward both paid and unpaid care work, long overlooked yet central to the country’s economy and social wellbeing.
At a media breakfast convened by UN Women in Nairobi, journalists, researchers, and policy leaders reflected on why care must be placed at the heart of national development, while also unpacking the recently concluded Unpaid Care Project.
The WYDE | Women’s Leadership Initiative is a collaborative global effort aimed at advancing women’s full and effective political participation and decision-making at all levels, especially those most often left furthest behind. As a multi-stakeholder initiative, funded by the European Union, UN Women will support the implementation of the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Feminist Movement’s and Leadership commitments, through directly supporting civil society and women’s rights organizations, including young women’s organizations.
As per the statues of international IDEA, the Secretary-General reports to the Council of Member States on the overall implementation of the Institute’s activities. In April 2014, as part of the Mid-Term Strategy Review, Member States recommended that the organization continue to strengthen its communication about results. This fifth International IDEA Annual Results Report therefore presents improved qualitative reporting of results, giving more information beyond the simple implementation of activities.
Research on women’s political participation at the community level was undertaken by Womankind in four very different countries – Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nepal and Afghanistan. The work in each context intends to increase women’s political participation and voice. The time available for the research was limited but much was achieved through the participation of Womankind staff and the deep involvement of Womankind’s partners working in each country; this enabled easy access to the women who work with, know and trust the partners. Women’s own situation varied across each country and between the countries; some had previous experience of engagement in public spaces while others were largely confined to their homes; some had formal education, while many were illiterate; some had access to trading and other livelihood work, others were financially dependent within their households. Their starting points for engagement with political influencing at the local level were disparate. Similarly, the political contexts into which they were moving in terms of local governance structures and processes were also diverse. In some, the Government had set up quotas and specific allocations for women, the poorest and the marginalised, such as Dalits, in others there were no such legal or statutory provisions and leverage on those with power over key resources, such as Local Government officials and Councillors, was very limited. In spite of these wide variations, it became apparent that achieving political change is challenging, often dependent on the political will of local officials, and policies made at national level are not necessarily implemented, or easy to get enacted locally.
Freedom House has published its new report ‘Freedom on the Net 2016. Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps Under Pressure’.
Internet freedom has declined for the sixth consecutive year, with more governments than ever before targeting social media and communication apps as a means of halting the rapid dissemination of information, particularly during anti-government protests.
Public-facing social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been subject to growing censorship for several years, but in a new trend, governments increasingly target voice communication and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram. These services are able to spread information and connect users quickly and securely, making it more difficult for authorities to control the information landscape or conduct surveillance.
These are the key findings:
- Internet freedom around the world declined in 2016 for the sixth consecutive year.
- Two-thirds of all internet users – 67 percent – live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family are subject to censorship.
- Social media users face unprecedented penalties, as authorities in 38 countries made arrests based on social media posts over the past year. Globally, 27 percent of all internet users live in countries where people have been arrested for publishing, sharing, or merely “liking” content on Facebook.
- Governments are increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, which can spread information quickly and securely.
This year, the report highlights some internet freedom issues as they affect women specifically. The India report, highlights research which explores the negative effect of online harassment on women's participation online, as well the unique threats faced by female online activists in Mexico who challenge the social and institutional norms which tolerate violence against women. There is also an emphasis on the specific economic and professional disadvantages faced by Nigerian women who lack access to the internet.
With the adoption of the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on sustaining peace and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a multilateral policy consensus is emerging around a common vision for peaceful societies. Building and promoting positive peace, rather than containing conflict and its consequences, is recognized as a more effective strategy for addressing today’s complex and interlinked global challenges. These global frameworks treat prevention as an integral part of effective and participatory governance and view peace as both an enabler and an outcome of sustainable development. Under this broad conception of peace, all groups and individuals are free to pursue their needs and aspirations without fear, with equal opportunities, with justice, and in security.
With no political solution on the horizon to end the conflict in Syria, it is clear that humanitarian agencies must continue to prepare for a protracted conflict. In late 2013, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) undertook an extensive literature review and a month-long field assessment in Jordan, including indepth interviews, focus group meetings and observation. The goal of the project was to identify how the humanitarian community was integrating existing gender guidance across all sectors and whether gender was being dealt with centrally as an institutionalized way of working rather than peripherally. It looked at the ways in which humanitarian agencies, including UN agencies and international and local organizations, assessed these needs and planned their programs. It also asked questions about the opportunities and good practices and models for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the No Ceilings initiative of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation joined forces to assess the evidence on the gains and gaps in progress for women and girls over the past 20 years. They asked: What do women’s and girls’ lives look like around the world 20 years after the Beijing conference? What barriers remain? What do the numbers tell us? How have laws and policies progressed over the same period? What information do we still need in order to assess the status of women and girls? The foundations worked with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the WORLD Policy Analysis Center at UCLA (WORLD) to examine the performance of 197 countries and Beijing Platform signatories and develop a picture of how the lives of women and girls have changed since the Beijing conference.
The findings are presented in this report and are available in a visual representation at noceilings.org.