By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 2025 – Girls and women worldwide are facing growing threats to their security and rights, from threats to their education access to severe poverty and multiple forms of violence. In 2024, nearly one in four governments worldwide reported a backlash to women’s rights, as a new report from UN Women reveals.

The report, Women’s Rights in Review 30 Years After Beijing, acknowledges that serious efforts have been made toward gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In the past five years, 88 percent of countries have passed laws to eliminate violence against women and girls. 44 percent are working towards improving the quality of education and training. More girls are now attending secondary and tertiary education compared to boys.

The report reviews the state of women’s rights since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995. Since its conception, the Beijing Platform for Action remains one of the most comprehensive roadmaps on women’s rights for countries to follow. Thirty years later, it is critical to take stock of the progress toward parity and where significant work is needed. The report highlights where these gaps persist.

Gender discrimination is still embedded in societies and institutions, beginning in governance. While women’s political participation in parliaments has vastly increased since 1995, they still only account for one in four elected parliamentarians. Only 87 countries have ever had a woman leader. Men still occupy a majority of leadership and decision-making positions.

Shrinking civic spaces are also affecting women’s participation and advocacy. This should be of concern when governments make decisions that undercut participation in civil society, such as through underfunding.

Without robust and gender-responsive social protections, vulnerable people can fall through the cracks. Women and girls are more likely to be at risk for poverty or to experience it, as evidenced in 2023, where 2 billion women and girls had no social protection coverage. In 2024, 393 million women and girls were living in extreme poverty.

When it comes to digital technology, the number of women using the internet increased from 50 percent in 2019 to 65 percent in 2024. Yet, 277 million more men had access to the internet than women. Even with this disparity, women are more likely to be targets of online harassment and violence, the nature of which is much more targeted and gendered. Legal frameworks still fall behind in addressing the prevalence of online violence, especially in the face of emerging technologies and their misuse.

Countries dealing with major crises or conflicts also see a regression in gender equality. It is rare for women to play a direct role in the peace process as mediators, even after the Beijing Platform for Action clarified that they were integral in the promotion of peace and security. As of 2023, women only made up 10 percent of negotiators and 14 percent of mediators.

Back-to-back protracted issues such as ongoing conflicts, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic have only exacerbated inequalities for women and girls. In democratic institutions, anti-rights groups have loudly and publicly rallied together to undermine key women’s issues, including reproductive health rights.

While there is still time, countries and communities must prioritize gender equality in their national strategies. To that end, the report also presents the Beijing+30 Action Agenda, which is comprised of six key actions that countries should take to make faster strides towards the commitments. The Action Agenda outlines the following actions:

A digital revolution for all women and girls: Ensuring that women and girls not only have equal access to technology but also have the skills to navigate it and online spaces securely.

• Freedom from poverty: Investing in comprehensive social protection, universal health coverage, education, and care services is needed for women and girls to thrive and can create millions of decent jobs.
• Zero violence: Achieving this through the implementation and funding of legislation to end violence against women and girls in all forms, with strong plans and resources available through community-led organizations to extend the reach of services.
• Full and equal decision-making power: Increasing and ensuring women’s decision-making power in public and private sectors through temporary special measures like gender quotas.
• Peace and security: Gender-responsive humanitarian aid and national plans that center on women, peace, and security. This must also include sustained funding for frontline women’s organizations to help build lasting peace.
• Climate justice: Countries need to prioritize women’s and girls’ rights in their climate adaptation plans. Including those from rural and indigenous communities should serve to center their leadership and knowledge and gain access to new ‘green jobs,’ productive assets, and land rights.

While countries may signal their commitments to gender equality through adopting gender-responsive and inclusive policies, without follow-through and proper funding, they may have little impact in the long term.

Along with the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, this year will also mark the UN’s 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8. The upcoming Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) will also be a critical opportunity for governments, civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders to make strong commitments in enshrining the Action Agenda, along with the principles that are the foundation of the original Beijing Platform for Action.

“UN Women is committed to ensuring that ALL women and girls, everywhere, can fully enjoy their rights and freedoms,” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. “Complex challenges stand in the way of gender equality and women’s empowerment, but we remain steadfast, pushing forward with ambition and resolve. Women and girls are demanding change—and they deserve nothing less.”

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By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 2025 – This week countries and communities converge in New York for the 3rd Meeting of State Parties on the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), with multiple side events to address the social, political and cultural impact of nuclear abolition across different sectors.

On March 5, the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations held an event called Fábulas Atómicas – Artists Against the Bomb in collaboration with Mexican artist Pedro Reyes, in which the relationship between the arts and the use of nuclear weapons was discussed. Throughout the last century, the arts have been used to provide cultural commentary on the threats that nuclear weapons pose to humanity.

“Using art for disarmament can take many different forms. I started by transforming gun parts into musical instruments, for instance taking a rifle and transforming it into a flute…What is the principle of a nuclear weapon? I thought it was possible to make a chain reaction that could be a creative force rather than a destructive force. That is how Artists Against the Bomb was born,” said Reyes.

Since 1952, the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) has continuously stressed the importance of international peace and disarmament. With geopolitical tensions on the rise and world superpowers such as Russia, North Korea, and the United States wielding more atomic weapons than ever before, the threat of nuclear proliferation is the highest it has been in decades.

“The bilateral and regional security arrangements that underwrote global peace and stability for decades are unravelling before our eyes. Trust is sinking, while uncertainty, insecurity, impunity and military spending are all rising. Others are expanding their inventories of nuclear weapons and materials. Some continue to rattle the nuclear sabre as a means of coercion. We see signs of new arms races including in outer space,” said United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres at the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Despite this, conversations surrounding nuclear weapons have been largely absent from the cultural zeitgeist. The Atomic Age, also known as the period of time between the detonation of the first atomic bombs in 1945 and the end of the Cold War in 1991, was saturated with pop culture that dealt heavily with themes of nuclear fallout.

Since the late 1980s, projects began to shift away from these themes. Reyes highlighted the importance of art in relation to cultural commentary surrounding nuclear weapons by saying, “The end of the 80s made it seem like the cold war was over. To a certain extent, people born after 1989 had not been exposed to cultural materials…With the nuclear testing ban, there haven’t been any nuclear detonations since around 1999. There’s a saying called ‘out of sight out of mind’. The threat became somewhat invisible. It is our job to use culture to bring awareness to this issue through culture by provoking rage and fear.”

Reyes adds that the current undersaturation of the nuclear weapons issue in pop culture helps to facilitate conversations as the public has become wary of discussing issues that dominate culture today. “There is no fatigue about the subject. There’s a certain fatigue surrounding projects that have been strongly discussed in the past twenty years. Nuclear weapons are an issue that we have not spoken out about enough in recent times. We need to take advantage of this lack of fatigue,” he said.

The Nuclear Art movement rose in 1945, shortly after the United States’ detonation of two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. At this time, the majority of the American public were unaware of the scale of destruction that had occurred in Japan.

Japanese photographers that had survived the attacks such as Yoshito Masushige (Hiroshima) and Yosuke Yamahata (Nagasaki), as well as American photographers such as Wayne Miller and Joe O’Donnell, published photos of the aftermath, which were classified by the United States government for decades. Much of the world instead relied on artwork that visualized the devastation.

Contemporary artists and corporations alike began incorporating themes of atomic weapons and nuclear fallout in their work shortly after the bombings in Japan. This movement grew more prominent after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which is considered to be the closest the world has ever come to nuclear warfare.

Western art pieces, such as Charles Bittinger’s 1946 painting, Atomic Bomb Atomic Bomb Mushroom Cloud, brought the now well-known mushroom cloud imagery into public consciousness in the United States. Other examples include U.S. military artist Standish Brackus’s pieces Still Life (1946) and At the Red Cross Hospital (1945), which depicted the wide scale destruction that nuclear weapons inflict on civilian infrastructure and the human body, respectively.

Additionally, Nuclear Art also became a fixture in Western propaganda. In 1957, the Walt Disney Company released an episode of Disneyland titled Our Friend the Atom, which highlighted the ways atomic weapons can be used for peace, falling in line with the themes of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace speech at the UN General Assembly in 1953.

In the early 1950s, blockbuster films from both American and Japanese studios led to a widening public consciousness surrounding nuclear weapons. Science-fiction films such as The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and Godzilla (1959) highlighted the unintended biological consequences of nuclear fallout.

However, On the Beach (1959) marked a pivotal shift in the depiction of nuclear fallout by explicitly marking humans as responsible for a deliberate detonation that led to a societal collapse. Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) expanded on these themes by using absurdism to emphasize humanity’s role in nuclear proliferation.

Most recently, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) brought nuclear weapons into the public consciousness once more, particularly in the West, There have been critiques on if modern artists are depicting these themes effectively. Reyes told an IPS correspondent that the arts have the ability to sway audiences in either direction. Certain representations of nuclear weapons in pop culture can be classified as either “above the cloud” or “under the cloud”.

“Films like Oppenheimer show the overwhelming power of science and the moral conflict of atomic bombs but never show the victims or consequences. Films like that are almost pro-bomb because they fail to humanize these conflicts. Other films show what’s really at stake. It’s important to be able to identify which side cultural productions are on,” said Reyes.

It is crucial for contemporary artists to depict the correct messages in their work to achieve any substantial cultural progress in nuclear disarmament. Pop culture must continue to show the true extent of the dangers that nuclear weapons pose.

“We have to be very clear in arguing that nobody can win a nuclear war,” said Reyes. “And that’s why it’s very important to show the consequences. It has been normalized through video games and other mediums that make them seem not as problematic as they are. It’s our job to do a lot of explaining and find entertaining ways for people to understand.”

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By Shihana Mohamed
NEW YORK, Mar 6 2025 – The United Nations has chosen “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” as the theme for International Women’s Day on March 8, 2025. This theme emphasizes the importance of equal rights, power, and opportunities for all women and girls, urging action to create a feminist future where no one is left behind.

The UN has long been a champion of gender equality, advocating for women’s rights and empowerment across the globe. However, despite its strong stance on gender issues, the UN has yet to elect a female Secretary-General in its nearly 80-year history.

This paradox highlights significant issues regarding the organization’s internal dynamics and the broader challenges of achieving gender parity in global leadership. It emphasizes the need for continued efforts to remove systemic barriers that prevent women from attaining top leadership positions.

Entrenched Selection Process

The UN Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, but only upon the recommendation of the Security Council, in accordance with Article 97 of the UN Charter. The selection process is both complex and politically charged.

The Security Council, where the five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — hold major influence, also has the power to veto candidates. This structure has historically favored individuals with strong political backing and extensive diplomatic experience, most of whom have been men.

Of the five permanent UN Security Council members, only France and the United Kingdom have had a female head of state, while China, Russia, and the United States have not. This contributes to an estimated 40% probability of selecting a female UN Secretary-General in 2026.

To be chosen as the Secretary-General, a candidate must secure at least nine votes (60%) from the Security Council’s members, with no vetoes from the permanent members. Of the current ten non-permanent members of the Security Council, only Denmark, Pakistan, and the Republic of Korea have had a female head of state. Without any vetoes from permanent members, the chances of selecting a female Secretary-General are about 33%.

As of November 2024, only 30 women were serving as Heads of State and/or Government in 28 countries, reflecting a significant gender disparity in global leadership. This represents a small fraction of the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly. Based on current trends, there is only about a 15% chance of selecting a female UN Secretary-General.

Historical Precedents

All nine UN Secretaries-General to date have been men, reflecting a historical pattern where candidates with strong political backing and alignment with the interests of the permanent members of the Security Council have been favored.

The historical dominance of men in the UN’s highest office creates a challenging legacy to overcome. This precedent can shape perceptions and biases, making it more difficult for female candidates to be seen as viable options.

Based on historical precedents of selecting only men, the possibility of having a woman as the next Secretary-General is close to zero.

Gender Disparity in Political Leadership

Men hold the majority of positions of power and influence worldwide. This is because global power predominantly has a male face.

Historically, leadership roles have been shaped by masculine norms and values, which continue to influence the structures and practices of power today. For example, international politics often mirrors masculine traits such as dominance, conflict, and hegemony.

Globally, women remain under-represented in political and diplomatic roles. As of January 1, 2024, women represented 23.3% of Cabinet members heading ministries and leading policy areas. Only 15 countries have women holding 50% or more of the Cabinet Minister positions in leading policy areas.

As of January 2025, women represent approximately 28.2% of the U.S. Congress, despite comprising 51% of the U.S. population.

This global under-representation of women extends to the pool of candidates for UN Secretary-General, where political and diplomatic experience is key. This significantly lowers the chances of a female candidate, with the likelihood estimated to be around 20%.

Geopolitical Interests

The geopolitical interests of the Security Council’s permanent members heavily influence the selection process, with their veto power often used to block candidates who do not align with their priorities.

The need for consensus among these powerful nations often results in the selection of candidates who align with their geopolitical interests, rather than prioritizing gender equality. These dynamics can overshadow the push for gender equality, leading to the selection of male candidates who are perceived to better serve the strategic interests of these nations.

The interplay of international politics and gender considerations creates a challenging environment for female candidates.

Regional Rotations

Historically, the office of the Secretary-General has been held by individuals from various regions, including Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Western Europe. This practice aims to balance regional influence within the UN and promote leadership diversity.

Regional rotation plays an important, though informal, role in selecting the UN Secretary-General, as candidates typically need support from their regional groups to gain wider acceptance.

However, the final selection is still subject to the approval of the Security Council, where any of the five permanent members can veto the choice.

The practice of regional rotation has not yet resulted in the selection of a female Secretary-General. In 2016, there was a significant push to select the first female Secretary-General, with several female candidates from Eastern Europe being considered. However, António Guterres from Portugal was finally selected.

Lack of Concrete Actions and Commitment

In November 2024, during the debate on revitalization of the work at the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly, delegates overwhelmingly urged the appointment of a female Secretary-General, supported by a joint statement by 78 Member States.

In February 2025, during the thematic debate at the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the General Assembly, around 90 Member States called for greater women’s representation in the UN leadership, including in the selection of the next Secretary-General.

Although many Member States have expressed support for a female Secretary-General, the lack of concrete steps to reform the selection process means that this support remains largely symbolic. Without specific actions and commitments, the chances of achieving this outcome remain slim.

Growing Advocacy

Advocacy for appointing a female Secretary-General as the UN’s 10th Secretary-General in 2026 is gaining momentum. Various organizations and influential figures are calling for gender equality in the UN’s highest office.

This advocacy underscores the need to address the historic gender imbalance and ensure that the UN genuinely represents and champions gender equality. Breaking this glass ceiling will be a significant step towards true gender equality, both within and outside the organization.

The advocacy campaign for a female Secretary-General needs not only strong individual candidates but also a concerted effort to address systemic barriers that prevent women from reaching top leadership positions. Without substantial reforms and concrete actions, this goal remains distant.

Conclusion

Electing a female Secretary-General would send a powerful message about the UN’s commitment to gender parity and set a precedent for gender equality in global governance.

While it is challenging to assign a precise probability of having a female Secretary-General for the next term, a reasonable estimate is around 20-30%. This takes into account the historical lack of female Secretaries-General, balanced by the increasing advocacy for a female Secretary-General and potential shifts in political support.

Women have yet to achieve the rights, power, and opportunities needed to hold the UN’s highest office.

Shihana Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, is a founding member and Coordinator of the United Nations Asia Network for Diversity and Inclusion (UN-ANDI) and a US Public Voices Fellow with The OpEd Project and Equality Now on Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls. She is a dedicated human rights activist and a strong advocate of gender equality and advancement of women.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shihana-mohamed-68556b15/

IPS UN Bureau

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