UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 (APP/DNA):Reaffirming its steadfast dedication, Pakistan has told a key panel of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that it has moved beyond legal reform alone and towards combating discrimination as a systemic barrier to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“Access to justice is not tested when laws exist — it is tested when discrimination determines who can actually use them,” Pakistani delegate Senator Bushra Anjum Butt said in a discussion at a ministerial roundtable on ‘Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls’, as the CSW’s 70th session entered the second day.
Participating in the discussion, government leaders and officials, civil society representatives and UN officials called for renewed efforts to dismantle the discrimination and legal obstacles that continue to limit women’s and girls’ rights worldwide.
In her remarks, Senator Bushra Butt said the pathway to justice for millions of women and girls worldwide is obstructed not only by legal gaps, but by deeply embedded social, economic, and institutional discrimination. Inequality in inheritance, barriers in mobility, exclusion from financial systems, workplace harassment, harmful customary practices, and discrimination within institutions collectively shape whether justice is reachable — or remains distant.
“Grounded in constitutional guarantees of equality and dignity, Pakistan has worked to align its legislative framework with the lived realities of women — Laws addressing honour crimes, forced marriage, workplace harassment, domestic violence, and sexual offences are being implemented,” she said.
In Pakistan, Senator Bushra Butt said that initiatives such as the Benazir Income Support Programme have provided financial protection to millions of women, strengthening their ability to be empowered economically.
Education stipends, skills development programmes, and digital inclusion initiatives are expanding women’s awareness of rights and their confidence to claim them, she said. Financial inclusion policies, women’s employment quotas, entrepreneurship support and increasing representation in politics and other fields are ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Eliminating discrimination requires transformation across three fronts: laws that protect, institutions that deliver, and societies that enable, it was pointed out. “This calls for sustained investment in legal literacy, enforcement capacity, and victim and survivor services.”
“Our commitment will be measured not by laws enacted, but by barriers dismantled — for only when every woman can stand before the law without fear or discrimination does justice transform from promise into reality,” the Pakistani delegate added.
Taking place from 9 to 19 March, the Commission if focusing on the priority theme ‘ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls,’ including by promoting inclusive legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws and addressing structural barriers that prevent women from claiming their rights.
Speaking at the opening of the session, Secretary-General António Guterres warned that despite decades of progress, inequality remains deeply entrenched.
“We still live in a male-dominated world and a male-dominated culture,” he said, stressing that gender equality “is – and always has been – a question of power.”
He noted that women globally hold only 64 per cent of the legal rights enjoyed by men and that justice remains “a distant dream for millions upon millions of women and girls.” Discriminatory laws and patriarchal norms continue to limit opportunity, he said, while conflict, climate change and widening inequality are intensifying the challenges.
“Justice for women and girls must be a cornerstone of the world we seek to build,” he told delegates.
UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous cautioned that advances toward equality are moving far too slowly, warning that the global gap in legal protections for women and girls could still take centuries to close.
Member States and partners gathered at the Commission represent “the most powerful of constituencies”, she said, adding: “That power is more than sufficient to make a difference, more than sufficient to transform lives.”
Looking ahead to the selection of the next UN Secretary-General, she also pointed out that Member States will soon face another historic choice.
“This year, delegates will be electing a new Secretary-General,” she said. “We at UN-Women will be proud to serve and work with a Madam Secretary-General.”
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), established in 1946, is the UN’s principal intergovernmental body dedicated to promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Each year, it brings together governments and civil society representatives to assess global progress, shape international standards, and agree on policy recommendations to advance women’s rights.
The body played a key role in developing landmark frameworks such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995, which remains the most comprehensive global agenda for achieving gender equality.
President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said the world no longer needed to debate the importance of women’s rights, but rather why progress remained incomplete.
“After 70 sessions of this Commission on the Status of Women, and 30 years since the Beijing Declaration, we no longer need to debate why women’s rights matter,” she said. “The real question is: why are we still not delivering?”
Globally, women have only about two-thirds of the legal rights afforded to men, she noted, adding that many countries still lack laws mandating equal pay for equal work or protecting girls from child marriage.
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) President Lok Bahadur Thapa echoed the concern that progress toward gender equality remains slow, emphasizing that legal reforms alone are not enough.
“Equality is not achieved simply by adopting laws alone,” he said. “It is achieved when justice systems work in practice – for every woman and every girl.”
He noted that the Commission plays a central role within the UN system, bringing together governments, civil society and international partners to advance gender equality and inform broader development efforts, including the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) and future global reviews of progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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