This year’s Townhall is a celebration — of the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. And of the 25th anniversary of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. Yet we are also here to issue a red alert. A surge in misogyny, and a furious kickback against equality threaten to slam on the brakes, and push progress into reverse.
Let me be clear. This is unacceptable, immoral and self-defeating. We must stop it — and we must stop it together.
In the 30 years since Beijing, we have seen advances in maternal health, girls’ education and more. Last year, countries agreed to the Pact for the Future. This reaffirms the commitment to achieve gender equality and empowerment for all women and girls. It recognizes this as essential to progress across the sustainable development goals. And it sets out to strengthen the Commission on the Status of Women.
Women’s organizations and civil society played a major role in securing those gains in the preparation of the Summit of the Future. I applaud your efforts. Yet, women and girls still face an appalling array of wrongs. We see it more than anywhere else, in Afghanistan. We see it in the sexual violence in conflicts from Haiti to Sudan. And we see it in the global pandemic of violence against women and girls, and their disproportionate poverty, hunger and marginalization.
The dramatic dangers facing social organizations and activists are both a symptom and a cause of this disease. Around the world, women’s rights defenders face harassment, threats and violence — even murder. They face shrinking civil space, and shrinking funds. The result is the erosion of rights and a deficit of accountability.
Despite your courage and persistence, women and girls’ interests are increasingly unrepresented and unheard when decisions are made. We must turn this around. My warning to leaders of all kinds is simple. Do not sacrifice equality for false expediency. It is a miscalculation; a misunderstanding of how societies thrive. It is short sighted. It is wrong. It must end.
And for those who ask how? The answer lies in this room. Energy, commitment and determination. All of us who care about equality must come together, organize and mobilize to push the world to deliver. With every one of us playing our part.
The United Nations system has reached, and sustained, gender parity at leadership level.
And we continue to take system-wide actions through our Gender Equality Acceleration Plan.
This is boosting the capacity of the UN system to deliver for gender equality and the rights of women across the board. It includes strengthening support for civil society participation. And opening-up financial opportunities for grassroots women’s organizations.
As a global feminist movement we must come together and push for action in critical areas. We must push countries and governments to prioritize investments in equality for women and girls.
And to deliver on their commitments in the Pact for the Future to create a surge in finance for sustainable development.
We must push for greater support for women’s rights organizations. We must push for action to tackle misogyny online, and close the gendered digital divide — by delivering on the Global Digital Compact agreed last year.
One of the biggest threats in our struggle for gender equality is the fact that there is a clear male preponderance in areas like technology, engineering and mathematics. This can be seen in many of the algorithms that are produced by the technology industry being biased. Biased against women. And this is something that we must consider a fundamental priority in this question of power relations. Power relations in the new technology areas must change and gender equality must be made in the new technology areas.
We must push all parties to ensure women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in peacebuilding — to create more enduring solutions. And we must push to advance women’s leadership and involvement in decision-making in government and business.
In these days of danger, civil society is the driver that makes the difference. We proudly stand at the United Nations with all those women’s rights defenders around the world, demanding equality. Demanding your rights. Ensuring that women and girls are heard. And holding leaders to their word. We share a common vision: a world of equality, where the human rights of women and girls are realized in full.
Let’s keep working together to make this vision of gender equality a reality for all.
(Excerpts of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ remarks to the Town Hall meeting with civil society on the occasion of the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women on 11 March 2025.)