Pushing forward towards gender justice

New York, NY – On March 18, 2025 the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) organized a panel event on the margins of the 69th UN Commission on the Status of Women conference in collaboration with Citizen News (CNS), the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) as part of the Sexual Health with Equity & Rights Initiative.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adaptation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (in 1995) and 10 years since the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals were set.

Titled ‘Are we on the right track to deliver on gender equality and human right to health?’, this panel brought together a diverse group of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) experts and advocates to share their perspectives on current challenges and opportunities.

In light of the Beijing+30 review, the world is not on track to deliver on SDG5 – which promises gender equality by 2030 where no one is left behind. Furthermore, the progress that was made towards SDG 5 and the 1995 Beijing Declaration is threatened by the ongoing global anti-rights movement. The regressive Geneva Consensus Declaration, 'Madrid commitment’, and the reinstatement of the ‘global gag rule’ (Mexico City policy) are only a few examples of this violent curtailment of SRHR and bodily autonomy.

Dr Haileyesus Getahun, CEO of CeHDI, opened the event by reminding the audience about the ongoing assault on the right to health, which is further fueling the global health inequity including on SRHR disproportionately affecting countries of the Global South and vulnerable populations. He emphasized the need to unite voices and forces to the right to health.

In her opening remarks Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, drew a clear line between the right to health and gender equality, “When you realize the right to health you enable many other human rights and, therefore, you can actually get to gender equality”.

The panelist and meeting participants shared their perspective on the assessment of the progress towards gender equality and on how to overcome the challenges faced today.

Her Excellency Ms. Mathu Joyini, the Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations in New York, also joined the event. Her Excellency underlined the intersections of peace, security and the right to health as well as the need to defend multilateralism to advance our goals including on SRHR.

Ms Dawn Minott, Senior advisor on Gender Based Violence at the United Nations Population Fund reminded the audience of the unacceptable global disparity in maternal mortality that exists despite worldwide progress. She said, “Women in sub–Saharan Africa are 130 times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women in Europe or North America”. She reiterated the need to push forward to preserve the gains and also address the inequities.

Dr. Roopa Dhatt is a physician and Associate Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine mentioned the role of women movement to realize gender justice. She said, “Coalesce, don’t fragment. The women movements are diverse and that is our strength”.

Fadekemi Akinfaderin, the Chief Global Advocacy Officer at Fòs Feminista, highlighted how we must maintain hope as advocates while still understanding the scope of the challenges we face. She spoke of the need to continually support and advance the multilateral system in the face of the anti-rights push we are seeing. “Its really important for us to think of this as an intentional, direct assault on multilateralism”, said Fadekemi.

Payal Shah is the Director of Legal, Advocacy, and Research at Physicians for Human Rights. She gave an assessment of the impact of multiple crises we are currently witnessing on gender equality, “An unfolding human rights crisis is intersecting with a public health crisis that has massive impacts on gender equality”.

The event concluded that it is high time that we renew our commitment and energy to realize gender justice and push forward amidst of the ongoing challenges and burgeoning anti-rights movement.