Achieve legal equality
In every part of the world, women and girls are prevented from fully participating in society by discrimination in the law.
Policy & Practice
Explore in-depth resources on women’s rights issues, including sexual violence, sexual exploitation, harmful practices, and legal discrimination from our expert network of lawyers and activists.
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19 January 2026
11 pages
This document brings together key international and Inter-American human rights standards that require States to prevent, investigate and respond to sexual violence using survivor-centred and consent-based approaches.
5 December 2025
65 pages
Women with disabilities in Central Asia face systemic discrimination, harmful stereotypes, and major barriers to justice for sexual violence. This new report exposes the failures and the reforms urgently required for survivors.
2 December 2025
4 pages
Equality Now presented key findings and recommendations at the 46th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) in Maseru, Lesotho.
The submission highlights key opportunities for strengthening legal protection, enhancing responses to digital and technology-facilitated sexual exploitation, advancing adolescents’ access to SRHR, reforming discriminatory nationality laws, and accelerating the elimination of harmful practices that continue to affect girls across Africa.
From discrimination in the law to ending sexual violence and harmful practices, explore resources from our worldwide expert team.
In every part of the world, women and girls are prevented from fully participating in society by discrimination in the law.
Child, early, and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU) affect millions of girls globally.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects at least 230 million women and girls globally.
Harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child marriage, deny millions of women and girls their fundamental rights.
The internet and digital technology have opened new possibilities for human progress and also new opportunities for harm.
The sexual exploitation and abuse of women and girls, in both physical and digital spaces, is on a disturbing upward trajectory.
Sexual violence is a human rights violation that impacts millions of people around the world. The vast majority of victims are women and girls, while almost all perpetrators are men.
The laws that restrict women’s property, marriage and inheritance rights are among the least reformed areas of law globally.
Women in over 45 countries still cannot pass their nationality to children or spouses on equal terms with men.
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22 September 2025
12 pages
Equality Now’s Words & Deeds 2025 update highlights rising global threats to women’s and girls’ rights, including regressive laws, misuse of multilateral systems, increased risks for defenders and disinformation, documenting legal and policy rollbacks that undermine gender equality.
9 September 2025
64 pages
A ground-breaking legal analysis of rape laws in 22 Arab States, calling for consent-based legal reforms and justice-centred accountability for survivors.
4 March 2025
43 pages
This is the sixth edition in our Words & Deeds series that exposes how governments have failed to repeal or amend sex-discriminatory laws and highlights the urgent reforms to achieve full legal equality for women and girls.