70th Commission on the Status of Women

On 9th March, 2026, the 70th Commission on the status of Women kicked off at the United Nations in New York. CSW is the world’s largest meeting on the empowerment of women and girls and the main global body steering progress on gender equality.

During the two-week session Ireland joined with representatives from other UN member states, civil society organisations and UN entities to discuss how we could ensure and strengthen access to justice for all women and girls.

Last year Ireland co-facilitated the process to revitalise the CSW. We are pleased that this year a number of recommendations arising from that process was put into practice including a high level meeting on violence against women and girls.

This year, I was honoured to lead Ireland’s delegation which included representatives from Irish civil society organisations as well as Ireland’s two UN Youth Delegates.

CSW hosted 200 side events with Ireland co-sponsoring a number of these events including one on education, as a first step to justice for women and girls and another on advancing women’s access to justice in agrifood systems.

CSW reviews the progress on women’s participation in public life and the elimination of violence against women, aiming to produce an outcome document, the "agreed conclusions" to guide global policy.

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