CNS: 2026

Longer lives, equal rights: Why ageing needs a gendered human rights response

[हिंदी] October 2026 may mark a pivotal moment in the global fight for equality and human rights for older persons. On 1st October the world observes the International Day of Older Persons under the theme "The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives." Later that same month, the UN Inter-Governmental Working Group on the Human Rights of Older Persons reconvenes at UN in Geneva to advance work on the drafting of a legally binding international treaty.

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Special highlight: Sharing of Adding it up 2024 Guttmacher’s Report findings and interactive costing tools

This 50th session marks 2nd anniversary of SHE & Rights!

We welcome you to the 50th SHE & Rights session on Friday, 18th September 2026 – which also marks 2nd anniversary of hosting SHE & Rights regularly to counter anti-rights pushbacks and advance gender equality and human right to health –by engaging media and other stakeholders, especially in the Global South.

In a landmark public health achievement, Lakshadweep became the first among Indian states and union territories to reach TB elimination levels. Lakshadweep is a sterling example that if we prevent-find-treat ALL TB in a person-centred and rights-based manner where "no one is left behind," we can end TB - even in a part of a country like India (which has the highest TB burden globally).

Beyond disguise: Defending women's rights against the anti-rights backlash

[हिंदी] With just 52 months left to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, the world is already falling dramatically short on goals related to gender equality and health rights. Decades of progress secured through legally binding treaties and other international agreements and commitments, are being threatened by a growing anti-rights backlash.

A 20-hospital, 3-year ICMR study of over 150,000 patients finds that carbapenem drug-resistant infections are driving up both deaths and treatment costs

A large multi-centre study of over 150,000 patients in India's 20 tertiary-care hospitals has put a stark number on one of the top ten global health threats today: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). AMR happens when infections easier to treat earlier become difficult (or impossible) to treat due to disease-causing microbe (such as bacteria, virus, fungi, parasite) becoming drug resistant.

Truth they do not want you to know: Half the world but only 27% of political power.

[watch the video of Shobha's talk] In a forceful address ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections, gender justice leader Shobha Shukla declared that inclusive democracy is not a side issue - it is a core gender justice demand. Women form roughly half of humanity and a large share of voters, yet they hold only a fraction of real political power. Speaking at a session organised by the Moment for Women Alliance and African Girls Empowerment Network (The AGE Network), Shobha warned that formal voting rights mean little when women remain locked out of the rooms where laws are written and budgets decided.

SHE & Rights: Countering anti-rights pushes and upholding human right to health and gender equality

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We invite you to the 49th SHE & Rights session on the theme: “Countering anti-rights pushes and upholding human right to health and gender equality,” scheduled on Friday, 28th August 2026, at 3:30pm Sri Lanka/ India time (12noon South Africa/ Zimbabwe/ Geneva).

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In a powerful intervention timed for the eve of critical global diplomacy, Eliva Press today (12th August 2026) released "Justice Unbound: Feminist Voices on Gender Equality, Health Rights, and Inclusive Futures," an exclusive compilation of 14 hard-hitting reports by veteran feminist, health and development justice advocate Shobha Shukla. Written between January and June 2026, the book documents the “nefarious pushbacks” against gender equality and the human right to health across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. With only about 53 months remaining to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Shukla’s work arrives as a stark warning and a call to action.

As the world approaches the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, Indonesian health officials and community advocates are calling for a stronger people-centred response to HIV and TB, saying medical treatment alone cannot overcome the stigma, discrimination, policy barriers and lack of access that keep vulnerable communities from care.

Not defined by HIV: Generation ready to rise

As India makes progress in preventing new HIV infections among children and inches towards eliminating its vertical transmission (mother to child), young women who have grown up with the virus say the next challenge is ensuring that they can live, work, love and build independent lives without discrimination.

Cambodia's recent achievement of achieving the 95-95-95 HIV-related targets demonstrates what determined national leadership and community partnership can accomplish, said Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Cambodia is the first and only country in Asia Pacific region so far to do so.

When every HIV visit becomes a chance to stop TB

TB continues to be the most common opportunistic infection as well as biggest cause of deaths of people living with HIV despite decades of progress in diagnosis, treatment and prevention. TB is preventable and curable but it was not so for over 150,000 people living with HIV who died of TB in 2024, as per latest UNAIDS report 2026 launched at 26th International AIDS Conference 2026 (AIDS 2026).

Some of the most important lessons from the recently concluded AIDS 2026 Conference were learnt not inside the conference halls, but on the steep hillsides of dangerous favelas (urban slums) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Two health and gender rights leaders delivered a stark assessment of what happens when major external funding disappears overnight and organised opposition fills the vacuum. The sudden withdrawal of US government's funding support has not merely reduced services - it has fractured health systems, emptied pharmacy shelves, driven up unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions, and enabled anti-rights groups.

At a recent global meet, a session cut through the usual conference optimism with a stark warning: the global AIDS response is being hit by a coordinated anti-rights and anti-gender backlash at the precise moment when funding is collapsing.

Tuberculosis (TB) programmes worldwide have expanded diagnosis and treatment on a historic scale. Millions of lives have been saved. Yet TB remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world. The gap between progress and elimination is not a mystery of medicine. It is a failure of prevention, politics, and priorities, said Dr Tara Singh Bam, noted global health advocate.

Read the latest HPPI publication here

It is deeply disturbing that the world largely forgot children when confronting tuberculosis (TB) - the deadliest infectious disease. Stronger data collection on childhood TB began only about a decade and a half ago, and the first child-friendly formulation was introduced just ten years ago, in Kenya in 2016. At world's largest AIDS conference, the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a special publication was launched by Humana People to People India showcasing four success stories of children (from socially and economically marginalised communities) tiding to cure and health.

Rising attacks against health and gender rights are threatening the global AIDS response. No wonder, a special session on this issue hosted at the world's largest AIDS conference - the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) - was full to capacity. This session put the spotlight on a recent #PauseForPurpose protest organised by a group of African feminists, survivors, women’s rights organisations and legal advocates around the Pan-African Parliament meet on 25th July 2026. This meet was for the African Union Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (AU CEVAWG). They were not there to reject continental action against violence against women and girls. They were there to demand better.

Latest report of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) show that one-in-four people living with HIV worldwide who are not receiving the lifesaving antiretroviral treatment, are in Asia Pacific region. This report "United to end AIDS" was released on 27th July 2026 at the world's largest AIDS conference, the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[video] How Lakshadweep became India’s first TB-free territory

[video] Services must follow people, not diseases: Stop treating TB and HIV as separate diseases

[video] TB does not wait. Neither do we: Community-led AI X-Rays saving HIV communities in Delhi

[video] 54 months to end AIDS, TB, Hepatitis, STIs and vertical transmission of HIV in South-East Asia

[video] Artificial intelligence X-Ray screening for TB in people living with HIV is vital

[video] Infection prevention, right & timely diagnosis, right treatment for all infections: prevent AMR

[video] Hidden no more: Social security for workers living with HIV

[video] ILO unveils VCT@Work model to reach informal workers with HIV testing at AIDS 2026

[video] Rising Anti-Rights and Anti-Gender Backlash: Threats to the Global AIDS Response

[video] Pause for Purpose: Analyse if Convention to End Violence Against Women and Girls is fit for purpose?

World Hepatitis Day 2026: Political will, not just tools, will decide if we end viral hepatitis, TB and AIDS by 2030

As World Hepatitis Day falls on 28 July, the global health community confronts a stark reality: the science to eliminate viral hepatitis, HIV and related epidemics already exists. What remains missing is the political courage, sustained funding and integrated delivery systems to put those tools into the hands of the people who need them most.

From India to Eswatini, Kenya to Georgia, Nepal to South Africa, people living with HIV and TB survivors warn that slogans and declarations alone will not deliver the 2030 goals. Only real people-power, funding and partnership will.

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At 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, join us in hybrid SHE & Rights session on the theme: "Rising anti-rights and anti-gender backlash: Threats to the global AIDS response."

The global HIV response has reached its most consequential crossroads in 45 years. HIV (and TB) science has never been stronger, but the political will has rarely been weaker, said Mitchell Warren. The arrival of powerful new prevention tools has collided with the most difficult political and economic environment the field has ever faced, creating both unprecedented opportunity and existential risk, he said.

Community-led health services for HIV key populations: Thailand’s model offers a roadmap to equity and ending AIDS by 2030

As the world grapples with the final stretch toward the 2030 goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat, Thailand’s Key Population-Led Health Services (KPLHS) delivery model stands out as a beacon of innovation, equity, and proven impact.

As the global HIV response faces shrinking funding, increasing pressure on civil society, and growing attacks on human rights and gender equality, UNAIDS' Eamonn Murphy has called for communities to remain at the centre of the fight against HIV - not only in principle but also in policy, financing and governance.

Shobha Shukla to be at UN Intergovernmental Working Group on the Human Rights of Older Persons for drafting of legally binding UN treaty

Hold the line: Fulfil the 2027 #EndTB commitments without shifting goalposts

Can we ever end tuberculosis (TB) - the deadliest infectious disease on Earth - without ensuring that every single person who takes an initial TB test receives a truly effective one? A test that accurately and rapidly detects active TB disease. A test that misses no one. Because finding TB early and accurately is not optional - it is the indispensable lynchpin, the non-negotiable gateway to the entire treatment and care pathway.

To this day 23 years-old Sneha (name changed to respect confidentiality) does not know with certainty how she got infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). No one else in her family carries the virus. The only plausible explanation she offers is that she got it through an infected injection needle in some healthcare setting.

GAP, CNS and SHE & Rights Live thematic sessions from AIDS 2026

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[video] #AIDS2026: #RethinkRebuildRise: #PutPeopleFirst to deliver on #endAIDS and #endTB targets by 2030

[video] Lakshadweep Islands become tuberculosis free: preventing, finding and treating ALL TB made it #endTB

Why are we still not on track to end TB despite decades of scaling up TB services?

by Dr Tara Singh Bam

Over the past several decades, TB control programmes have made significant progress in expanding diagnosis and treatment services. Success has traditionally been measured by programme indicators, such as detecting 70% of estimated TB cases and successfully treating 85% of those diagnosed. Achieving these targets has rightly saved millions of lives.

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[video] Science allows us to #DoBetter to #PutPeopleFirst, central to HIV & TB responses #RethinkRebuildRise

Rising patriarchal resistance in Africa against gender equality and health rights

Only 54 months are left to deliver on the promise of gender equality (SDG-5), and health and wellbeing (SDG-3) by 2030. But the sense of urgency and purpose is acutely missing and instead of going forward, in many instances we are slipping backwards. Growing anti-rights and anti-gender pushbacks are trying to reverse whatever progress has been made on gender and health rights, especially for girls and women and gender diverse communities.

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Be welcome to join us in an AIDS 2026 Affiliated Independent Event on the theme: #RethinkRebuildRise: #PutPeopleFirst to deliver on #endAIDS and #endTB targets in next 54 months.

[video] African governments must disengage with regressive 'draft Charter', says UN Special Rapporteur on Right To Health

[video] Protect Maputo Protocol to resist anti-rights pushbacks and advance gender equality and right to health

4th Edition of SHE & Rights Media Awards 2026-2027

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After the largest convening on gender equality in 2026 (Women Deliver Conference 2026) and ahead of 79th World Health Assembly and International Day of Action for Women's Health and Menstrual Hygiene Day, the Geneva-based Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI) and CNS proudly announce the 4th Edition of SHE & Rights Media Awards 2026-2027.

[हिंदी] It all started with a road accident in Indian state of Punjab on 25th November 2001 which killed home maker Reshma - a mother of three children. Incidentally, 25th November is also observed globally as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

End TB Dialogues | Joep Lange Awardee 2026 Joshua Brianwong Clark

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Protecting Maputo Protocol is critical to resist anti-rights pushbacks and advance gender equality and right to health

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We invite you to another important SHE & Rights session on the regressive draft ‘African Charter on family, sovereignty and values,’ which threatens to undermine progress made on gender equality and right to health in the African continent.

[watch the launch of Global Week of Action to Make Big Tobacco Pay] "How can we allow the tobacco industry to fill its coffers while we the people have to empty our pockets to fend for and suffer all the harms tobacco industry has caused? It is high time to shift the financial burden from people and communities to the tobacco industry for ALL the harms caused by its businesses," said Shobha Shukla while opening the launch of the historic Global Week of Action to Make Big Tobacco Pay.

This year's Menstrual Hygiene Day as well International Day of Action for Women’s Health is a grim reminder that women's health is far from being a fundamental human right in reality. The writing on the wall is clear: if we are to deliver on the goal of gender equality for all by 2030, we must dismantle deep rooted stigma, secure bodily autonomy and eliminate period poverty.

[video] Navigating the bleeding edge: Period poverty and reproductive health in the poly-crisis

Launch: #MakeBigTobaccoPay Global Week of Action + Media briefing

[Register now] Join us on 1st June 2026, Monday, in Launch of MAKE BIG TOBACCO PAY Global Week of Action as well as media briefing.

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Welcome to special SHE & Rights session to mark 28th May - Menstrual Hygiene Day as well as the International Day of Action for Women's Health.

An important Declaration endorsed by over 1500 experts has called upon Indonesia to ratify the lifesaving global tobacco treaty and hold tobacco and nicotine industries liable. The declaration also calls for implementing several other proven measures to protect its children and people from deadly tobacco and nicotine products.

We are living in an age of ageing with a fast-growing number of older people. Life expectancy has increased significantly over the past years. Japan has nearly 100,000 people aged 100 or older - the highest in the world, with women comprising roughly 88% of this population. By 2050 the population of persons above 60 years of age is projected to grow to 2.1 billion (nearly one fifth of the total global population).

The common phrase 'good girls take care of family' reflects a deeply ingrained social expectation, often referred to as 'Good Girl Syndrome,' where girls and women are expected to be nurturers, compliant, and prioritise others' needs over their own. This often translates to handling household burdens, emotional labour, and caregiving to ensure family stability.

In the lead-up to one of the most significant global health gatherings of 2026, the Global Media Briefing on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) offered a sobering and urgent reminder: the world is not just facing a future threat - it is already living through a largely invisible crisis that continues to claim millions of lives.

In Women Deliver Conference 2026 (WD2026) - largest gathering on gender equality this year, before the first plenary had even begun, a quieter but deeply urgent conversation unfolded in the Media Lounge - one that set the tone for everything that followed. Framed as a fireside chat, “Reclaiming the Narrative: Media, SRHR and Feminist Storytelling” brought together advocates, communicators, and frontline health workers to confront a pressing question: who gets to tell stories about bodies, rights, and health - and what happens when those stories are taken out of the hands of those who live them?

In Women Deliver Conference 2026 - largest gathering on gender equality this year - a panel of transgender rights leaders and advocates from across Asia and the Pacific came together to speak about a reality that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore: the intensifying global backlash against transgender rights, and the deeply personal toll it is taking on communities already pushed to the margins. What emerged from the discussion was not just a policy conversation, but a powerful reminder that behind every law, every statistic, and every debate are people whose lives cannot - and should not - be reduced to categories, labels, or data points.

In Women Deliver Conference 2026 - largest gathering on gender equality this year - a conversation unfolded that was as urgent as it was deeply contested: abortion rights are human rights. Framed within the broader agenda of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), this SHE & Rights session brought together activists, media voices, and advocates who are working across vastly different political and cultural landscapes. Yet despite these differences, what united them was a shared insistence that abortion is not merely a policy issue or a moral debate—it is fundamentally about dignity, autonomy, and the right to decide over one’s own body.