In Focus: The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) and Asia and the Pacific

The seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 20 March 2026.

Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world are invited to contribute to the session.

Themes

• Priority theme: Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers;
• Review theme: Women’s full and effective participation and decision making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls (agreed conclusions of the sixty-fifth session);

Bureau

The Bureau of the Commission plays a crucial role in facilitating the preparation for, and in ensuring the successful outcome of, the annual sessions of the Commission. Bureau members serve for two years. In 2002, in order to improve its work and ensure continuity, the Commission decided to hold the first meeting of its subsequent session, immediately following the closure of the regular session, for the sole purpose of electing the new Chairperson and other members of the Bureau (ECOSOC decision 2002/234).

The Bureau for the 70th session (2026) of the Commission on the Status of Women comprised the following members:

• H.E. Ms. Maritza Chan Valverde (Costa Rica), Chair (Latin American and Caribbean States Group)
• Ms. Samah Dbouk (Lebanon), Vice-Chair (Asia and Pacific States Group)
• Mr. Noah Oehri (Liechtenstein), Vice-Chair (Western European and Other States Group)
• Ms. Andreea Mocanu (Romania), Vice-Chair (Eastern European States Group)
• Ms. Flavia Umulisa (Rwanda), Vice-Chair (African States Group)

Session outcome

The outcome of the Commission’s consideration of the priority theme during its 70th session took the form of agreed conclusions, negotiated by all Member States and adopted on 9 March 2026.

To get more information regarding the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (2026), visit this page.

Side events

Information on side events will be posted here when it becomes available. Information on the CSW70 side events is available here.

Asia Pacific CSW70 Regional Preparatory Meeting

The Asia-Pacific preparatory meeting was jointly convened on 29-30 January 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Bangkok Regional Hub, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) East Asia and Pacific Regional Office.

• CSW70 Regional Preparatory Meeting Report
• CSW70 Regional Preparatory Meeting Concept Note
• CSW70 Regional Preparatory Meeting Programme

The objective of the regional preparatory meeting was to provide an interactive forum for both state and non-state actors from relevant institutions (gender equality and women’s empowerment, and justice) from ESCAP member States and key stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific to examine ways to accelerate progress on key human rights instruments and frameworks, including the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (in particular following the recent commemorations of Beijing+30), the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - through the centering of access to justice as critical to the dignity, freedom, voice, and agency of women and girls.

The regional preparatory meeting provided an opportunity to take stock of key trends, needs, gaps in policy responses, and good practices, as well as to consider possible areas for joint interventions (policy, programmatic or otherwise), to address the institutional gaps across legal systems and discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that impede women’s and girls’ access to justice. Specifically, this preparatory meeting facilitated the exchange of knowledge and ideas among state and non-state actors in order to:

• Foster a comprehensive understanding of the systemic legal, social and institutional barriers limiting women’s and girls’ access to justice, including discriminatory laws, policies, and practices.
• Explore legal and institutional reforms designed to realize the rights of all women and girls, close legal gaps and strengthen gender-responsive judicial and alternative justice mechanisms.
• Strengthen legal literacy among women and girls to ensure they are aware of their rights, understand available remedies and are empowered to engage effectively with justice systems.
• Examine how innovations in digital justice, community-led approaches, and survivor-centered responses to gender-based violence can be leveraged to expand access to justice and address emerging challenges with a gender perspective.
• Promote women’s leadership in the judiciary, to strengthen justice systems, enhance gender-responsive decision-making and ensure that legal institutions effectively respond to the rights and needs of women and girls.
• Enhance the availability of comprehensive, disaggregated data and research to inform efforts in advancing gender equality within justice systems, ensure justice systems are gender responsive and to strengthen safeguards and accountability for gendered harms.

The outcome of the Asia-Pacific regional preparatory meeting for CSW70 is a set of suggested actions for accelerated progress, in line with the Priority Theme for CSW70. The suggested actions are feeding into CSW70 and can inform membership contributions to the Agreed Conclusions.