Press Release
Published on March 20, 2026
Washington, D.C. — Human Rights First denounces recent U.S. efforts to tear down longstanding consensus on gender equality that underpins the work of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and multilateral cooperation.
Human Rights First President and CEO Uzra Zeya noted, “In a failed attempt to impose its domestic political agenda onto international human rights bodies, the Trump administration adopted positions more extreme than some of the world’s most repressive regimes and hit a new low in U.S. isolation on the world stage. The end result is diminished U.S. multilateral influence and a more hostile environment for U.S. and international civil society actors working tirelessly to combat gender discrimination and gender-based violence.”
The annual convening of the Commission, which concluded yesterday, has proven an invaluable forum for globally advancing the human rights of women since the adoption by the international community of the ground-breaking Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995. Over the course of the most recent meeting of the Commission, the United States delegation repeatedly sought to undermine terms and conclusions relating to gender and the human rights of women that have been supported by the international community for many decades.These efforts not only threatened to impede the important work of the Commission but further demonstrated the isolated, counterproductive, and unprecedented character of the U.S. approach. Such efforts do not serve the interests of the U.S. or the international community.
Human Rights First applauds successful efforts by other Commission members to defend the longstanding consensus that has served as the backbone of the UN’s important work to advance the human rights of women and persons in all their diversity around the world. U.S. and international civil society have a critical role to play in countering U.S. and others’ efforts to collapse UN gender protections from within.
