OutRight Action International

03/11/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/11/2026 10:41

Member States Reject Rollbacks in Historic Vote at the UN Women’s Commission

In an historic move, the 44-member United Nations Commission on the Status Of Women has adopted its annual outcome document through a vote rather than by consensus as usual after a vote was forced by the United States.

Ultimately passing with overwhelming support from Member States, the conclusions were subject to heated negotiations and an unprecedented insistence on a vote by the United States, attempting to delete long-standing language seen as protecting an inclusive vision of human rights protections for women and girls. This is the first time in 70 years that the CSW departed from its longstanding practice of adopting documents by consensus with an historic vote of 37 votes in favor, 1 against and 14 abstentions. The vote on the Agreed Conclusions was called by the United States after their 8 amendments were resoundly defeated.

Outright, working with a broad coalition, followed the negotiations closely and helped coordinate hundreds of civil society organisations from around the world. In the final hours before the vote, this coalition of feminist civil society organisations called on the Member States of the UN to adopt the Agreed Conclusions "as drafted" and to reject attempts to amend, delete or dilute them.

The United States had tried to bring 8 amendments that would mould the otherwise-agreed document to be more in line with its own positions on a range of issues including abortion, gender, gender identity, and diversity, equity and inclusion. These 8 amendments were defeated in a resounding vote of 26 to 1, with 14 States abstaining.

During the adoption, several Member States in the room spoke to the importance of this moment:

Tunisia firmly rejected the US's amendments, arguing that the text on the table, presented by Costa Rica, the Chair of this year's CSW, represented a longstanding consensus around the protection and promotion of the rights of all women and girls, and went on to call other member states to also reject the U.S. amendments.While Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia regretted that the document was not adopted by consensus they ultimately only abstained in the final vote, isolating the United States as the sole country to vote against a document seen as the global annual reaffirmation of gender equality. Mexico also welcomed the adoption of the document, defending the integrity of the process, facilitated by Rwanda and Liechtenstein, and sharply criticising the US, noting that while consensus is a fundamental principle of multilateral work it must not be used as a veto to block progress to move towards gender equality.

"While a vote for the first time is a concerning development that deepens the already existing fracture of the multilateral system, it also represents a sign of political will of governments to push against the gender backlash and uphold their commitments to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action" said Maria Paula Perdomo, Program Manager of UN Engagement at Outright International.

When the text was finally adopted, the General Assembly erupted in applause and cheers: women human rights defenders and diplomats celebrating the defeat of attempts to roll-back years of progress in realizing the human rights of all women and girls everywhere.

The adoption kicks-off two weeks of the CSW where Member States will present their national progress in achieving access to justice for all women and girls, and discuss global solutions to violence against women as well as hold a roundtable on the rights and protections of older women.

Outright International and dozens of LGBTIQ human rights defenders will also be at CSW ensuring that lesbian, bisexual, transgender and gender-diverse, and intersex persons are visible and that their needs and priorities are accounted for, not just around the theme of access to justice, but embedded in the multilateral system as a whole.

OutRight Action International published this content on March 11, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 11, 2026 at 16:41 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]