Blog by Linda Witong, SI Advocacy Advisor.
Representatives from all 193 UN Member States convened in New York this week for the 80th session of the General Assembly (UNGA80), the UN’s main deliberative body. While this milestone session should have been cause for celebration—marking eight decades since the United Nations’ establishment—the atmosphere was soberly focused on an array of global crises. From ongoing conflicts and accelerating climate change to persistent gender inequality and the emerging ethical challenges posed by artificial intelligence and digital transformation, the world’s representatives faced a daunting agenda. Rather than commemorating past achievements, UNGA80 became an urgent forum for confronting today’s most pressing global challenges.
During the general debate, which got underway on 23 September, world leaders took to the podium in front of the gilded backdrop of the Assembly Hall to elaborate on their priorities to a global audience. Despite the historic presence of Annalena Baerbock—only the fifth woman in the UN’s 80-year history to serve as President of the General Assembly—and the aspirational theme “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights”, the session’s optimism felt tragically misplaced.
Unfortunately, there was a stark contradiction between the soaring rhetoric regarding all women and girls obtaining full enjoyment of their human rights and the reality outside the Assembly Hall. No country had yet escaped the gender inequality trap: not one country was on track to achieve gender equality by 2030, the deadline every country had committed to meet. Moreover, reports indicated that if current trends continued, global gender equality would not be achieved until well into the 22nd century.
By September 2025, UN reports confirmed that the world had changed profoundly for women and girls since 1995’s Beijing Platform for Action and 2015’s Sustainable Development Goals—but not in the ways promised. Thirty years and numerous crises later, women and girls had fallen far from policy priorities. Evidence of this decline was mounting: the Equal Measures 2030 coalition found it increasingly difficult to elevate gender equality on policymakers’ agendas. Previously accepted language about gender equality was being stripped from international agreements or simply ignored. Donors were abandoning women’s rights while funding for anti-gender movements surged.
This crisis hit hardest where action was needed most: among women and girls in the poorest countries, eclipsed by other domestic challenges and diminishing international solidarity. Indeed, global solidarity was fragmenting as armed conflicts, climate breakdown, violence against women, the feminisation of poverty, migration, and inadequate healthcare spiralled beyond control. Simultaneously, women and girls’ human rights were breaking down under these mounting pressures.
