UN experts reaffirm central role of gender in advancing human rights and equality

| News, Statements, Top-line

28 August 2025, GENEVA – A group of UN experts* today issued a joint statement reaffirming the centrality of understanding gender as a tool in the advancement of substantive equality and human rights for all.

“Gender-based discrimination must be addressed alongside sex-based discrimination,” the experts said, emphasising that gender is shaped by social and cultural norms, roles, and power dynamics, which change over time. “Legal and policy frameworks that fail to incorporate a gender perspective risk reinforcing, rather than dismantling, structural inequality,” they warned.

They expressed deep concern about attempts to reassert rigid, binary conceptions of sex – minimising the social, historical and cultural factors that shape gender – and warn that such efforts undermine decades of progress in achieving human rights and gender equality.

“These regressive approaches ignore the lived realities of women and girls, as well as gender-diverse persons, and obscure the root causes of discrimination and violence,” the experts said.

They highlighted the importance of recognising intersectional forms of discrimination, including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and reaffirmed the guidance of international bodies such as the CEDAW Committee in interpreting gender-based discrimination broadly.

“We call on States, UN entities, businesses and all other stakeholders to reaffirm their commitment to gender equality, the experts urge the continued integration of gender in international law, policy, and practice,” the experts said.

“Ensuring the rights and dignity of all women and girls, in their diversity, is critical to the coherence and integrity of the international human rights system which is essential to realising the promise of human rights for all,” they said.

*The experts:

Special Rapporteurs/Independent Experts/Working Groups are independent human rights experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Together, these experts are referred to as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights office acts as the secretariat for Special Procedures, the experts serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including OHCHR and the UN. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the UN or OHCHR.

Country-specific observations and recommendations by the UN human rights mechanisms, including the special procedures, the treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, can be found on the Universal Human Rights Index https://uhri.ohchr.org/en/

For inquiries and media requests, please contact: Brian GRIFFEY, Human Rights Officer, hrc-ie-sogi@un.org.

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact Maya Derouaz (maya.derouaz@un.org) or Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org).

Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on X: @UN_SPExperts.