"No country in the world has reached full legal equality for women and girls." In the year 2026, that is the official finding of a new United Nations Secretary-General report.
Women and girls are still falling victim to violence and discrimination because every nation in the world is failing to legally uphold their rights.
Of course this report's finding is incredibly bleak and worrisome. What makes it even worse is that, when the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) created a list of commitments to make things better for women and girls, the United States was the only country to vote against it.
It is worth noting that the representative of the United States at the CSW was a man, Dan Negrea.
Sign the petition and demand that Dan Negrea actually fight for the women and girls of his nation and around the world, and vote that the U.S. upholds these commitments!
The report is titled "Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls," and some of its most harrowing details include:
- In 54% of the world's countries, the definition of rape has nothing to do with consent -- which means a woman can be raped and it made not be seen as a crime
- In 3 out of 4 countries, girls can still be forced to marry
- 44% of the world's countries do not legally require equal pay for women doing the same jobs as men
These instances of
inequality, violence, and injustice may feel like things of the past, but the UN's report proves that they are happening to millions of women and girls right now. So much progress has been made towards gender equality, but sadly, so many are still living in restrictive, violent, and oppressive environments --
and it is our job as a global community to continue to fight for the rights of women and girls.You would think that, as one of the most wealthy, powerful countries in the world, the United States would be loud and proud about the advancement of women's rights. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is an advantageous one:
when women and girls flourish in any society, the entire community is lifted up. The economy thrives, health and education improves, and violence decreases.
And yet, the United States did the exact opposite.
The country's representative was the only one to vote no on the commission's commitment to advancing the rights, protections, and equality of women and girls -- a horrible, gut wrenching slap in the face. Their reasons?
The U.S. apparently held issue with language that implied countries should protect abortion rights (they should), promote "gender ideology" or in other words protect trans, nonbinary, and queer people (they should), and regulate AI (they should).Let us make this clear: the United States is willing to throw the world's women and girls under the bus just to protect the closed-minded, hateful ideologies of politicians that are restricting people's access to abortion, gender-affirming healthcare, and systems of protection and justice.
This is shameful. That is why we're demanding that U.S. representative Dan Negrea do the right thing and withdraw his cowardly "no" vote.
Sign the petition and demand that the United States treat this like the emergency it is, and commit to protecting women and girls!