Equality Now at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)

Every September, world leaders, diplomats, advocates, and changemakers gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) – a critical moment in the global calendar to assess progress on the world’s most pressing challenges.

For Equality Now, it is a strategic opportunity to amplify the voices of women and girls, advocate for international legal accountability, and ensure gender equality remains central to global decision-making.

Why UNGA matters for our work

UNGA is more than speeches and handshakes – it’s where global norms are shaped, where political commitments are made, and where civil society can push to ensure those promises translate into action.

Equality Now participates in UNGA to:

• Hold governments accountable for their human rights obligations, especially under CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the SDGs.
  
• Elevate under-represented voices – especially of feminist leaders, legal experts, and survivors – from across our global network.
  
• Drive feminist legal reform by spotlighting discriminatory laws and pushing for concrete commitments to repeal and replace them.

Our presence at UNGA each year helps reinforce the principle that legal equality is not optional – it’s foundational.

The power of advocacy at the global stage

Each year, Equality Now engages in a range of activities during UNGA, including:

• Speaking at or co-hosting high-level panels and side events
  
• Presenting research and evidence on key issues such as harmful practices, sexual violence, and legal discrimination
  
• Engaging directly with UN agencies, government officials, and partners to influence outcomes and declarations
  
• Participating in civil society coalitions to coordinate advocacy on shared goals
  

UNGA 2025: 30 Years Since Beijing – Time for Bold Action

This year marks a pivotal moment: the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark blueprint for advancing women’s rights globally.

Equality Now will be participating in a range of activities and events to mark this historic occasion and spotlight our ongoing advocacy for legal equality:

UN-Women Expert Group Meeting on Access to Justice

September 8 – 10, 2025 (Virtual)
While not part of the official UNGA program, this closed Expert Group Meeting (EGM) will play a vital role in shaping CSW70’s focus on access to justice and legal accountability. Equality Now’s Antonia Kirkland will moderate a session on legal frameworks, with insights from Hyshyama Hamin of the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law and others. Together, they will highlight how reforming discriminatory laws is essential to realising gender justice.

TFGBV & The New Age of Sexism – A Global Dialogue on AI and Gender

Tuesday, 9 September 2025 | 12:00 PM EDT
In partnership with feminist leaders, technologists, and legal experts, this hybrid event will spotlight the rising threats of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) and AI-driven discrimination. Inspired by Laura Bates’ book The New Age of Sexism and the Alliance for Universal Digital Rights (AUDRi)’s landmark deepfakes report, the panel will explore how international legal reform and collective advocacy can close protection gaps and push for rights-based digital governance.

Find out more and register here.

Beijing+30 Celebration

On September 22, 2025, Equality Now will host a small gathering to mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This event will bring together key allies and decision-makers in an intimate setting to reflect on achievements, reignite commitment to ending sex-discriminatory laws, and emphasise the transformative potential of achieving full gender equality by 2030.

Innovating Against Exploitation: Technology, Trafficking, and Peacebuilding through Ethical AI

23 September 2025 |1:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT (In-person and virtual) 

On 23 September, Equality Now will join a host of organisations, including Apne Aap, NYU Ethical Tech Lab, Microsoft, and Harvard Global Women’s Empowerment, at an event that will bring together policymakers, AI leaders, peacebuilders, civil society actors, survivor advocates, and youth voices to explore the complex intersection of technology, trafficking, and peacebuilding. The event will raise awareness of technology-facilitated trafficking, highlight survivor-centred and regulatory solutions, and showcase how ethical AI leadership, particularly by women, can guide innovation toward advancing human dignity, prevention of exploitation, and sustainable peace. 

Find out more and register here.

Beijing +30 – Parliaments leading the way, Inter-Parliamentary Union event

On 24 September, Equality Now will join parliamentarians from around the world and other high-level speakers for a day of reinforcing parliamentary commitments to gender equality, strengthening parliamentary leadership in fulfilling the vision of Beijing+30, responding to backlash against gender equality, and forging partnerships between parliaments, civil society, and men as allies to sustain and protect gains in women’s rights. Equality Now’s Antonia Kirkland will speak on the panel “Partnerships for equality: Creating new momentum for Beijing,” focusing on the impact of and lessons learned from alliances between women parliamentarians and feminist groups.

Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2025

On 24 September, Equality Now’s Mona Sinha will speak at a high-level dialogue as part of the launch of UN Women’s flagship report, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot, produced annually in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which highlights gender equality trends, gaps and setbacks across all 17 SDGs, utilising the latest available gender data.