Securing the rights of women and girls will transform all of our futures: Introducing Equality Now’s new five year Strategic plan, Securing Rights. Transforming Futures

There are moments in history when the progress we have come to expect, slows. And then there are moments when it is deliberately reversed. It’s not hyperbolic to claim that we are living through the latter.

Thirty years ago, governments gathered in Beijing and made a commitment: that legal equality between women and men was not optional but foundational to human progress. Since then, more than 1,500 legal reforms have advanced women’s rights across the globe. Laws against child marriage have been strengthened. Protections against sexual violence expanded. Economic barriers challenged.

But across the world, the rights of women and girls today are no longer advancing along this uneven but forward path. They are being contested, diluted, and, in some places, dismantled. Language that once commanded international consensus is now treated as ideological excess. Long-settled human rights principles are reopened. Funding for women’s organisations is withdrawn. Civil society space narrows.

This is not a coincidence but  a planned and funded strategy. And it presents a profound test not only for women’s rights advocates, but for democratic societies themselves.

We are witnessing six converging pressures.

1. First, the rise of authoritarian politics. Governments that centralise power often treat gender equality as a threat to traditional hierarchies. Women’s movements that are independent, organised, and international are viewed not as partners in development but as obstacles to control. Restrictions on foreign funding. Regulatory burdens on civil society. The quiet marginalisation of human rights defenders. These are not isolated measures; they are systemic recalibrations of power.

2. Second, legal regression by attrition. In some countries, progress is reversed openly. In others, it is eroded administratively. Implementation budgets shrink. Regulatory guidance stalls. Treaty obligations are honoured rhetorically but ignored in practice. The appearance of compliance masks substantive retreat.

3. Third, discriminatory economic and family laws continue to harm women and girls worldwide. In many countries, women face unequal inheritance rights, barriers to divorce, restrictions on employment, and limited access to property or credit. These laws are often remnants of outdated systems, sustained by political inertia and entrenched gender norms. When women lack equal standing in the family or economy, their autonomy, financial security, and opportunity are constrained from the outset. Strong economic outcomes are not guaranteed.

4. Fourth, digital transformation without ethical guardrails are escalating dangerous new ground. Artificial intelligence systems replicate historical biases at scale. Online spaces are built largely on commercial models that reward grievance and division. Technology-facilitated abuse proliferates faster than legal remedies can adapt. The architecture of the digital age is being constructed — and unless equality is written into its foundations, discrimination will become automated.

5. Fifth, the weakening of multilateral trust. International human rights mechanisms, long the backstop against domestic regression, are increasingly politicised. Consensus around gender terminology fractures. Funding for treaty bodies stagnates. The system remains powerful but it is under immense strain.

6. And finally the infrastructure that protects and advances equality is being weakened. Funding cuts to women’s rights organisations, restrictions on international aid, and shrinking civic space are forcing frontline groups to close their doors. Without sustained, long-term investment, progress stalls and backlash accelerates.

Taken together, these pressures form what can only be described as permission for inequality, at worst actively closing down the rights of women and girls. 

It is a watershed moment. And it demands an enduring response.

Securing rights. Transforming futures.

At Equality Now, we begin from a conviction grounded not in ideology but in experience: that the law can deliver this foundational structural security to gender equality. Over the past three decades, Equality Now has contributed to the reform of more than 135 discriminatory laws worldwide. Laws that determine whether a girl can stay in school rather than be forced into marriage. Whether a survivor of rape must prove she resisted or whether the absence of consent is enough. Whether a woman can work without permission. Whether a government or tech company can be held accountable for failing to prevent  online sexual abuse.

This has involved detailed legislative research, model laws, training,  strategic litigation in regional human rights courts, and sustained engagement with United Nations treaty bodies where the majority of our legal recommendations have been adopted into official outcomes. Through it all we have seen that when progress is institutionalised, it endures.

Launching this week, our new strategy “Securing rights. Transforming futures.” is designed with exactly this in mind – a guiding light for defending and accelerating progress towards a just world for all women and girls.

Shaped by the passion and insights of our people and partners around the world, this bold new plan is built around  five strategic priorities – each reflective of the unique challenges and opportunities of the day. 

Standing firm in the face of the anti-rights agenda

Priority 1: Uphold international law and human rights

Priority 2: Strengthen leaderful women’s movements

In this pivotal moment we must not only continue to address the ever-evolving face of inequality around the world but also defend hard-won gains in the face of reactionary pressures, and ensure that the rights and experiences of women and girls remain key to the global development agenda through to 2030 and beyond. Research consistently demonstrates that strong, independent women’s organisations are the single most reliable drivers of democratic reform. Authoritarian regimes understand this; that is why they seek to fragment them. By strengthening coalitions across Africa, Eurasia, Latin America, and South Asia and by providing technical legal expertise alongside contextualised movement mobilisation we reinforce not just advocacy, but democratic infrastructure.

Securing foundational rights and freedoms:

Priority 3: Secure digital rights, safety, privacy, and freedom

Priority 4: Centre economic justice

Priority 5: End gender-based violence

With technological advances not only enabling those who’d seek to undermine democracy and multilateral protections, but also compounding the biases, violence, and harms faced by women and girls worldwide, we must remain steadfast in our efforts to ensure rights are upheld in laws, and legal processes are fit for purpose, in both physical and digital realms. We’ll also elevate economic justice. Because legal discrimination in family, labour, and property law is not peripheral to equality; it is central. Economic autonomy underpins political voice and personal security. 

Innovating for impact, at scale

To meet this moment we are also strengthening how we create and influence change via a number of major new initiatives. For example, the new Equal Justice Academy, developed in partnership with the Women’s Human Rights Training Institute, will help equip advocates with the legal knowledge and tools to drive systemic change. We are also launching a dedicated Disinformation Unit to counter false narratives that target gender equality, and developing a clearer understanding of our global spheres of influence to better align advocacy and collective action.

And as part of our continued work on ending gender-based violence, we’ll invest more into confronting the critical issue of impunity head-on, challenging the silencing of survivors, holding institutions accountable, and pushing for justice systems that protect women rather than shield perpetrators.

We know that a just world is a better world, for women and girls, for everyone.

This International Women’s Day should be celebrated and observed by ALL. The erosion of women’s rights is rarely the end point of democratic decline. It is often the beginning. Societies that restrict the  autonomy of half their population rarely preserve liberty for long.

The task before us is therefore larger than gender equality alone. It is about the kind of societies that we allow ourselves to hope and organise for.