27th February 2023

Testimony for the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on the ERA, 28 February 2023

Our Global Executive Director, S. Mona Sinha, submitted the below written testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on 28 February 2023, The Equal Rights Amendment: How Congress Can Recognise Ratification and Enshrine Equality in Our Constitution.

Key recommendations

Equality Now has seen the pervasive damage done to women and girls wrought by legal inequality, including the promotion of gender-based violence (GBV) in discriminatory laws. Conversely, we have seen the tremendous benefits gained by countries that have embraced equality in the law, including in their constitutions, the supreme law of the land.

We strongly believe that the Equal Rights Amendment will bring about further positive legal and social change, as it has in other countries, and make an enormous difference in the lives of all American women and girls, their families, and their communities. It could provide further protection from gender-based violence, including sexual and domestic violence, child marriage, FGM, and other forms of violence and discrimination.

Having been ratified by the requisite number of states, all constitutional requirements have been met for the ERA to be codified and become the supreme law of the land. Please support S.J. Res. 4 and call for the urgent incorporation of the Equal Rights Amendment into the United States Constitution.

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Backlash on addressing inequality in Georgia: Submission to GREVIO for the first  round of thematic evaluation, 6 February 2026

Equality Now’s GREVIO submission on Georgia highlights backsliding on gender equality, shrinking space for human rights NGOs and remaining gaps in sexual violence response: non-consent-based rape laws, insufficient services for survivors and retraumatising practices.

Ending discrimination in family law: Joint submission by Equality Now, the Hurra Coalition, GCEFL, and Asuda to CEDAW on Iraq

Joint Eastern and Southern Africa Civil Society Forum Declaration Communiqué to End Child Marriage

Equality Now, together with civil society organisations from across Eastern and Southern Africa, issued a joint declaration on International Human Rights Day, reaffirming child marriage as a human rights violation and calling for coordinated, rights-based action to translate laws and commitments into protection, justice, and dignity for girls across the region.

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