UN Women Executive Director’s statement for International Women’s Day
A message from UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous for International Women’s Day (IWD), 8 March 2026
Happy International Women’s Day 2026.
A day to celebrate every voice raised, every barrier broken, every right claimed by women and girls around the world.
We have never been so close to achieving gender equality, and never closer to losing it.
Today, stronger laws exist on domestic violence. More girls are in school than ever before. Women’s movements are more connected, more visible, and more crucial than ever before.
And yet, this is also a moment of contradiction.
Violence is rising, including online. Backlash is organized and well resourced. Rights are being reversed in real time and at unprecedented speed. Impunity is spreading, in homes, online, and in conflicts.
International Women’s Day 2026, under the theme Rights. Justice. Action for All Women and Girls, must be our collective turning point.
We must stand up, show up, and speak up, for rights, justice, action, so all women and girls can live safely, speak freely, and exist equally.
UN Women was built for this moment. From crisis zones to courtrooms, from the grassroots to global power.
We stand with women and girls when rights are denied, justice is delayed, and violence is ignored. We support women’s movements. We stand with all survivors of violence, everywhere, always. We push laws, systems, and institutions to deliver for women and girls.
Today, I urge you, for ALL women and girls – to act:
Break the silence.
Demand rights and justice.
Defend the rule of law.
Fund women’s rights movements.
End impunity.
Deliver equality, in laws, in life, everywhere.
Friends, nothing can and nothing will stop us until the equal rights of all women and girls are realized.
Happy International Women’s Day!
