On March 8, 2026, the International Association for Community Development (IACD) stands in global solidarity with women and girls to mark International Women’s Day. As the United Nations convenes the 70th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), we endorse the urgent findings of the Secretary-General’s report, ‘Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls.’
The report provides a sobering warning: we are witnessing a coordinated global backlash against gender equality. Laws are being reshaped to restrict freedoms, and the systems designed to protect women are failing, leaving many exposed to abuse and impunity. Globally, women still only hold 64% of the legal rights that men do, and the implementation of those rights is stalled by a lack of political will and resources.
The Need for Inclusive Solidarity and Collective Action
IACD recognises that justice is not a gift; it is a right. Recent legislative victories - from constitutional protections in Europe to the criminalisation of coercive control and dowry abuse in Australia; from eliminating child marriage in Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso, to expanding environmental and agricultural rights in Kenya and economic and land rights in Colombia - demonstrate that when women collectively organise, they become powerful agents of change.
We also recognise that for justice to be real, it must be intersectional. We understand that women's access to justice is dictated not only by gender but also by race, class, disability, or migration status. Our solidarity must be fully inclusive.
Our Community Development Call to Action
Guided by the International Standards for Community Development Practice, IACD calls on all Community Development practitioners and organisations to work intentionally for transformative justice:
- Facilitate dialogues that expose how the erosion of rights impacts daily life, collectivise demands for accountability and policy reform.
- Work in solidarity with women's organisations to monitor how laws are applied on the ground to ensure legal rights on paper become lived realities for all women and girls.
- Adopt feminist-informed practice to ensure Community Development practitioners are equipped to recognise the larger forces of patriarchal and systemic oppression while continuing to strengthen community empowerment and resilience.
- Actively centre the voices of the most marginalised—including migrant, refugee, and Indigenous women—ensuring that ‘access to Justice’ does not leave behind those facing the greatest barriers.
- Advocate for the proper recognition and resourcing of the Community Development sector. The workforce (largely women) must not be expected to perform the work of social justice without social protection and fair support.
In this 70th year of the Commission on the Status of Women, IACD remains focused in our commitment to a world where action is collective, justice is accessible, and rights are realised.