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 gender 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 discrimination in law and practice
• 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 2026

Equality Now will be co-hosting and participating in a range of activities and events to spotlight our ongoing advocacy for gender equality under the law and in practice. Please check back, as more events may be added:

The Gender Equality Dividend: Investing in Women’s Economic Prosperity Through Family Law Reform

September 16th, 2026 | 2-3:30PM 

Join the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law (GCEFL), Equality Now, TrustLaw, and the World Bank Group for a conversation on the sidelines of UNGA on one of the most under-resourced, highest-leverage investments in global development: gender equality legal reform.

This event marks the launch of a landmark World Bank Group and Equality Now joint brief, “Unlocking Women’s Economic Rights through Family Law Reform: Lessons from Case Studies across Five Regions,” presenting new evidence on how discriminatory family, marital, and inheritance laws hold back women’s economic participation, and what changes when those laws are reformed. This brief builds on insights from the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law brief, “Changing Laws, Changing Lives: Family Law Reform as a Catalyst for Economic Prosperity,” which will also be shared at the event. Guests will also hear about the GCEFL’s forthcoming research on marital and inheritance rights, facilitated by TrustLaw.

A moderated panel will bring together World Bank Group economic development experts, Equality Now legal reform experts, and a national partner from Chile to make the case directly: why has legal reform historically been treated as a policy issue rather than an economic one, what does the data show about the cost of exclusion, and what becomes possible for societies, economies, and women and girls when this work is fully prioritised?

Speakers:

• Mona Sinha, CEO, Equality Now
• Antonia Kirkland, Director, Legal Equality & UN Liaison
• Amy Hutchinson, Director of Development, Equality Now
• Julia Braunmiller, Senior Private Sector Development Specialist, World Bank Group
• Natasha Vedananda, TrustLaw Legal Program Manager, North America and the Caribbean, Thomson Reuters Foundation
• Mistral Ensignia, Humanas Foundation Attorney and University of Chile’s Faculty of Law Professor

Space is limited. Please join us for the program and a networking reception immediately following.

Find out more and register here 

The Silence has been broken: what happens now?

September 21, 2026 | 8:30 – 10:00 am

Scandinavia House

Join Equality Now Board Member Michelle Harrison and other leaders for a conversation on gender-based violence, co-hosted with All In: Global leaders for ending gender-based violence. 

Speakers:

• Hanna Birna Kristjansdottir, Co-Founder and Chair, Reykjavik Global Forum; Senior Advisor, UN Women
• Tarana Burke, All In Co-Chair; Founder, ‘Me Too’ movement, Chief Vision Officer, ‘Me Too’ International
• Katrin Jakobsdottir, Prime Minister, Iceland (2017 – 2024)
• Michelle Harrison, Global President, Verian Group; Board Member, Equality Now
• Geeta Rao Gupta, Co-Founder, The Arch Collaborative; All In Leader

Find out more and register here

From Advocacy to Accountability: Human Rights Practice in Action 

September 21, 2026 | 12:00 – 2:30 pm 

URIS HALL, Room 107 (Calder Lounge), 3022 Broadway, NY 10027

Join Equality Now’s Tsitsi Matekaire and others for a panel discussion that seeks to address the question: In a changing and increasingly challenging global environment, how can human rights practitioners turn human rights into power, evidence into accountability, and advocacy into lasting change? 

Speakers:

• Ruchira Gupta, Apne Aap Women Worldwide; Emmy-award winning documentarian, author of I Kick and I Fly; Professor, New York University
• Gaisu Yari, Advocacy and Policy Manager, Afghanistan Initiative, Malala Fund
• Tsitsi Matekaire, Director, Regions, Equality Now
• Kevin Hyland, Chair of G20 IF 20 Working Group on Human Trafficking
• Céline Bardet, Founder and President, We are NOT Weapons of War
• Samer Khwaiss, Executive Director and Founder, Black Basalt Foundation

Organised by the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.  

Find out more and register here 

Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030: Renewing Global Leadership 

September 23, 2026 | 8:30 am – 10:00 am

UN Women, 220 E. 42nd St., 19th FL.

With only four years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, more than  30 years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and more than five years after the launch of Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030: A Multistakeholder Strategy for Accelerated Action, the global community stands at a critical juncture. While significant progress has been achieved in advancing legal equality for women and girls, recent trends reveal growing resistance or regression in women’s rights. This event will celebrate recent achievements, spotlight leadership from Member States that have enacted landmark reforms, and reaffirm collective determination to accelerate progress toward legal equality by 2030. It will also highlight the United Nations’ new Global Alliance for Human Rights, convened by OHCHR, and underscore that the Secretary-General’s Task Team on Addressing Discrimination in Law will continue its work, complementing and reinforcing the efforts of the Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030 coalition.

Registration is required for entry. Registration will close at 5:00 pm on Monday, September 21. 

Find out more and register here 

Centring Human Rights in the Digital Age

September 23, 2026 | 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Microsoft, New York City

Artificial intelligence is being built into the institutions that decide how people are protected, believed and repaired. This event asks what it takes to keep human dignity inside that architecture rather than appended to it. Join Equality Now’s Tsitsi Matekaire on the first panel of the day, on the theme “From Testimony to Accountability: A UN Framework Protocol on CRSV”. Despite a robust body of international law addressing conflict-related sexual violence, a persistent gap remains between commitments and national implementation. This panel examines the case for a UN Framework Protocol – designed not to create new legal obligations, but to help States translate existing ones into prevention, documentation, justice and long-term survivor support. Building on existing standards including the Murad Code, it launches a global consultation towards that framework.

Organised by Microsoft, Apne Aap, Generative AI for Good and others and co-sponsored by Equality Now and others

Find out more about the other panels and speakers,  and register here