What does access to justice mean when the spaces to speak, organise and seek support are shrinking?
This report examines discussions from two meetings at the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70). It explores how digital rights, reproductive healthcare, feminist organising and civic participation shape women’s and girls’ ability to exercise their rights.
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About the report
Bringing together perspectives from government representatives, civil society, scholars and youth delegates, the report considers the conditions that make justice accessible in everyday life. These include affordable legal support, bodily autonomy, access to information, economic security and the ability to participate safely in public debate.
Across the discussions reviewed, a recurring tension emerged: formal commitments to equality can coexist with barriers that prevent people from exercising their rights. Discriminatory laws, underfunded services, conflict, surveillance and restrictions on civic space can all widen the gap between legal protections and lived experience.
Key findings and themes
Digital systems can expand access and deepen exclusion
Online legal services and digital reporting tools can help people reach assistance. Yet the discussions also highlighted how biased AI, surveillance, online abuse and unequal access to technology can reproduce existing inequalities. Speakers called for privacy protections, independent oversight and meaningful involvement from the communities using these systems.
Shrinking civic space weakens access to justice
Restrictive laws, intimidation, hostile policing and deplatforming limit the ability of feminist and youth-led movements to organise and advocate. When civil society organisations lose their ability to operate or communicate, communities can also lose access to legal aid, information and support that public institutions fail to provide.
Reproductive justice remains unevenly addressed
The report highlights the tension between commitments to sexual and reproductive healthcare and the continued criminalisation of abortion. Within the two meetings reviewed, it records only two mentions of abortion, despite extensive discussion of health. The report identifies the only explicit defence of abortion access in those discussions as coming from a civil society speaker.
Anti-rights movements require a coordinated response
Participants described organised, well-funded and transnational efforts to undermine bodily autonomy, trans rights and comprehensive sexuality education. The discussions emphasised coalition-building, feminist leadership and solidarity across movements as essential responses to misinformation, polarisation and political backlash.
Feminist and youth-led organisations need lasting support
These organisations connect communities with services, make rights understandable and hold institutions accountable. Speakers called for direct, flexible and long-term funding, alongside a meaningful role in policy design, governance and monitoring.
Justice extends beyond the courtroom
Disability inclusion, economic autonomy, education, healthcare and climate resilience all influence whether people can exercise their rights. Accessible procedures and legal aid matter, but so do the resources, knowledge and social conditions that enable someone to seek help in the first place.
Examples highlighted in the report
Speakers described online protection-order systems in South Africa and free legal aid directories with chatbot assistance in the Philippines. These examples show how digital tools can reduce practical barriers when accessibility and safeguards are built into their design.
Representatives from Belize, South Africa, Chad and Kenya described services bringing medical, legal and psychosocial support together. The report presents these approaches as examples of responding to the connected needs of survivors of violence.
An example from Sudan describes feminist legal networks helping to overturn death sentences, secure acquittals and respond to arbitrary detention. It illustrates the importance of sustaining community-based legal support under conditions of conflict and crisis.
Priorities emerging from the discussions
- Protect physical and digital civic space. Ensure that advocates and communities can communicate, assemble and organise without intimidation or exclusion.
- Build accountability into digital justice systems. Address bias, protect privacy and involve affected communities in the design and oversight of technology.
- Recognise bodily autonomy as central to justice. Address the legal and practical barriers that prevent access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.
- Fund feminist and youth-led movements sustainably. Provide direct, flexible support and embed their participation in institutional decision-making.
- Make justice accessible in practice. Expand affordable legal aid, disability-inclusive services, legal education and integrated support for survivors.
- Address the conditions that prevent rights from being exercised. Connect legal reform with economic security, healthcare, education and support for communities affected by conflict and climate-related harm.
Read the full report for detailed discussion, speaker contributions and further examples.
Download the full report (PDF)