CNS: February 2026

[video] Gender equality now: SHE & Rights session ahead of CSW70 and International Women's Day

[video] People Over Profit?

[video] Mainstream development justice framework for health, gender, climate, social, and economic justices and accountability to peoples

SHE & Rights ahead of CSW70 and International Women's Day

Next SHE & Rights session will be held on 26th February 2026, Thursday, ahead of International Women’s Day (8th March) and 70th Session of the UN Commission on Status of Women or CSW70 (9-19 March) as well as during the intergovernmental Asia Pacific People’s Forum on Sustainable Development and intergovernmental APFSD (Thailand).

More of the same model would fail us even more on sustainable development goals and targets. With 58 months left to deliver on SDG goals and targets for 2030, the pledge of “leave no one behind” would become even more unfulfilled if we do not make tectonic, transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated shifts and actions, said noted feminist leader Sai Jyothirmai Racherla while delivering the keynote address at Asia Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Development, ahead of the intergovernmental meeting to review progress on specific goals and targets in Asia and the Pacific region.

"My journey on ending female genital mutilation/cutting did not begin in an office. Instead, my journey began when I knew where the shoe hurts the most. So, speaking from a perspective of personal experience and pain, some years back when I was a very young girl, I was subjected to female genital mutilation/cutting. That was the first turning point of my life because the pain and psychosocial trauma is so very raw even today in my head. But now I take it as an opportunity to save more than a thousand girls that I have known and who have passed through my hand but never underwent the cut,” said Catherine Menganyi HSC, nurse epidemiologist, and Co-Founder and Chapter Lead of Women in Global Health, Kenya. Catherine is a survivor of female genital mutilation/cutting and a powerful advocate to end it, as well as all other forms of gender-based violence.

Fortify accountability fulcrums like UPR to deliver on gender equality and right to health

Accountability is critical when it comes to ensuring that promises made by the governments translate into ground realities “where no one is left behind.” Without robust accountability mechanisms, we risk failing on goals and targets, such as those enshrined in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or other legally binding treaties, like Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), agreements, declarations and other global, regional or national commitments.

When AI serves the underserved by bridging access gaps and linkage to health services

If one assumes that artificial intelligence (AI) is for the ‘haves’ and not ‘have-nots,' then let us dive deeper into how AI is helping reach the unreached populations with state-of-the-art public health services. Not just Global North, but several countries of the Global South too are shattering this myth of 'AI for the rich and mighty' by deploying AI to serve the most underserved communities and helping overcome access barriers. This becomes even more important when such person-centred AI tools come from Global South innovators like DeepTek.