Commission on the Status of Women

Topic A: Reforming Discriminatory Legal Frameworks to Close the "Legal Rights Gap"

Discriminatory legal frameworks refer to national, regional, and customary laws that explicitly or implicitly deny women equal rights, protections, and opportunities compared to men. These laws operate globally, across every region and income level, and affect nearly every dimension of a woman's life, from her ability to work, own property, and access justice, to whether she can pass her citizenship to her children. According to the World Bank's Women, Business and the Law 2024 report, women on average enjoy just 64 percent of the legal protections that men do, and no country in the world currently offers full legal equality. In 61 out of 131 surveyed countries, at least one law restricts women from performing the same jobs as men, and in more than half of all countries, legal definitions of rape do not center consent, leaving survivors without adequate legal recourse. The consequences of these gaps extend far beyond individual lives: closing the legal gender gap could raise global GDP by more than 20 percent, yet at the current pace of reform, it is estimated that it would take 286 years to achieve full legal equality worldwide. Progress has been made, with 1,531 legal reforms implemented across 189 countries between 1995 and 2024, but in 2024 alone, nearly a quarter of governments worldwide reported a backlash against women's rights, and rights once considered secured are increasingly being reversed. Discriminatory laws are not just isolated national failures, they are global violations of the international commitments enshrined in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by 189 countries. Addressing this issue requires the international community to move beyond declaration and toward enforceable, time-bound commitments to identify, repeal, and replace discriminatory laws. Delegates must consider how international pressure, technical assistance, and accountability mechanisms can support governments in accelerating legal reform, ensuring that implementation follows commitment, and ultimately closing the legal rights gap for every woman and girl.   

Topic B: Combating Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV)

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence, or TFGBV, refers to any act of violence that is committed, assisted, aggravated, or amplified through the use of digital technologies, including cyberstalking, online harassment, non-consensual image sharing, deepfakes, sextortion, and the online grooming of children. As internet access expands globally, so too does the reach and severity of this form of violence, which disproportionately targets women, girls, and children. According to the Centre for International Governance Innovation, 59.9 percent of women with internet access have personally experienced some form of TFGBV, and the United Nations estimates that 95 percent of aggressive online behavior targets women. Research by Plan International found that 75 percent of girls aged 13 to 24 have encountered harmful content online, with many experiencing it on a daily or near-daily basis. The harm caused by TFGBV does not remain confined to digital spaces; it frequently escalates into physical violence, stalking, and femicide, creating a dangerous continuum between online and offline harm. Three key drivers have accelerated the problem in recent years: a global backlash against women's rights, the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence, and the spread of misogynistic online communities whose content increasingly fuels real-world violence. Legal frameworks have not kept pace, with fewer than 40 percent of countries having laws that specifically address cyber-harassment, leaving an estimated 1.8 billion women and girls legally unprotected. Efforts such as UNFPA's Making All Spaces Safe program and recent legislative advances in countries like Lebanon and the Marshall Islands show that change is possible, but progress remains fragmented and insufficient. Delegates must explore how governments and technology companies can be held accountable, how legal definitions can be modernized to reflect digital realities, and how education and digital literacy can serve as tools for prevention, ensuring that no woman, girl, or child is left unprotected in an increasingly connected world.

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