Oral Statement on International Women's Day at HRC58
This statment was delivered by WILPF on behalf of a group of CSOs (ALTSEAN-Burma, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Franciscans International, ILGA World, International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), MenEngage Global Alliance, Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI), and Women Deliver.)
International Women’s Day emerged from the struggles of working-class women advocating for fair wages, better working conditions, and voting rights. Yet today, corporate power and abuse have expanded, with a few corporations and ultra-wealthy men wielding unchecked influence that impacts the lives of billions without accountability.
This is exemplified by Big Tech companies that bolster far-right voices and autocratic regimes, amplifying misogynistic, racialised, nationalist, and anti-immigration narratives that fuel attacks on minorities and feminist activists and actively undermine gender justice and human rights movements worldwide.
Independent access to information and freedom of expression are increasingly at risk. From attacks on reproductive autonomy to anti-trans legislation and hate speech, reactionary forces are undermining decades of progress. Feminist and queer movements are at risk – both online and physically – when they exercise their right to freedom of expression and advocate for justice and equality.
We are also witnessing an alarming trend across the world: governments are shifting resources from humanitarian aid, social spending, and climate adaptation to the military. This shift is based on a misguided and short-term vision of security, which prioritises war over diplomacy, weapons over well-being, and militarisation over human security. This trend enables war profiteering by arms companies and tech companies which supply products and services for military purposes.
On this International Women’s Day, we urge all governments to
- Collectively resist the re-allocation of funding from aid, development and human rights to military spending, and uphold obligations and commitments to invest in human rights, peace and social spending,
- Ensure that Big Tech respect the right to freedom of expression and other human rights; improve transparency and accountability in this sector, and end the concentration of power among the handful of companies that dominate the digital sphere.
- Ensure protection of sexual reproductive health and rights, bodily autonomy, and gender-affirming care as human rights, and resist anti-gender movements that seek to erase the rights of LGBTQI+ people and to roll back feminist gains.
- Safeguard civil society space, freedom of expression, freedom of association while ensuring sustained funding to feminist, human rights and other social justice movements.
- Ensure the full and effective participation of women, non-binary, and gender-diverse people as well as minorities in all decision-making spaces, including in peace efforts, conflict resolution.