Introduction
For several decades now, March has been the month when women’s rights are celebrated. The original intent of this newsletter was to draw attention to the mixed and disturbing signals we observe in the tumultuous landscape of March 2026.
As this issue was being finalized, the endless war in the Middle East ahs worsened. We witnessed scenes of brutal destruction in Lebanon and what has been described by various analysts as a humiliation of the American empire. With a precarious ceasefire in place, Trump, whose popularity has hit rock bottom—equivalent to Nixon’s in the 1970s—openly attacked pope Leo. Then, in a delusional gesture, he posted an AI-generated image of himself portrayed as Jesus, sparking condemnation from various quarters.
Amid this turmoil, on Sunday April 12, Viktor Orbán suffered a resounding defeat in the Hungarian elections. The political implications of this result are still being debated. But as an article in El País correctly pointed out, it will have immediate negative effects on the ecosystem of anti-gender policies and opposition to abortion rights. Later on, we will analyze in depth the background and factors that explain this defeat and its possible implications. For now, we offer a fairly comprehensive compilation of articles and analyses of the election results.
Above all, we recall that a key factor in the victory of Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party was the massive LGBTIQ+ Pride March, which, in June 2025, brought 200,000 people onto the streets of Budapest. In August, during a debate at the Regional Forum on Pending and Emerging Dialogues, we analyzed the lessons learned from this successful event. We also shared an excellent interview with Hungarian sociologist Judit Takács, in which she interprets the march as a turning point in the dynamics of resistance to the Orbán regime.
“Women’s Month” in 2026
There were numerous mixed signals during the March 2026 celebrations. In other words, the symbolic space of feminist emancipation struggles was appropriated by images, discourses, and figures from the far right.
On March 2, just days after the bombing of a school in Iran that killed 150 girls, U.S. First Lady Melania Trump presided over a UN Security Council session on the issue “Children, Technology, and Education in Conflict.” On that occasion, Melania asked Council members “to commit to safeguarding learning… to build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education.” This event served as a prelude to the Global Technology Summit, which, in late March, brought together first ladies from more than 40 countries at the White House, including Sara Netanyahu, Brigitte Macron, and Olena Zelenska. At the event, Melania returned to the theme of childhood, urging participants to engage “in the mission of empowering children through technology and education. I encourage each of you to take a proactive step following this inaugural summit. […] Collaborate with the private sector. Make technology accessible to those who need assistance, and draft innovative legislation to protect our children.”
In Argentina, the logic of co-optation was even more blatant, with official statements making it clear that the date is clearly disputed. The Milei administration’s official message praised “women’s freedom and efforts in building the nation”, criticizing what, in the past, had been “a noble cause used to prop up millionaire political structures, impose absurd ideological agendas, and divide Argentines.”
The same tone was evident in content posted on social media by organizations and leaders from the ultra-conservative camp. The Spanish platform Citizen Go circulated a soft-focus image of women of various ages accompanied by the following text: “Sisters, daughters, mothers who everywhere nurture life and change the world with truth and beauty. Only you can do what you do: XX.”
In Kenya, Charles Kanjama, president of the Christian Lawyers Association, an anti-gender and anti-abortion activist and frequent partner of Citizen Go, also celebrated March 8 by praising: “The women who keep our families together, the women whose social genius is the glue that binds our relationships, the women who bring harmony and elegance to our workplaces—our mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, relatives, and friends, colleagues and coworkers, neighbors and acquaintances.”
This distortion of March 8 was not limited to the far right of the political spectrum. In Mexico, while commemorating the date, President Claudia Scheinbaum invoked women’s rights but also linked them to the role women now play in the Mexican Armed Forces. She stated that these women are the “weavers of the nation,” in a patriotic and militaristic tone that clashes with the emancipatory spirit imbued in the celebration through decades of feminist struggles.
These signs of distortion and co-optation do not mean, however, that the date was not once again celebrated as a symbol of feminist uprisings and gender justice. Among other assessments, El País published a special supplement on 8M that clearly illustrates the heterogeneity and vigor of feminist struggles—not only as a demand for rights and equality, but also as crucial bastions of resistance in neo-fascist times.
CSW 70: History Repeats Itself as Farce
Given this turbulent backdrop, the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), held in New York from March 9 to 19, should be viewed as a space for resistance, and its outcome as a cause for celebration. Since the mid-2000s, the annual CSW sessions have been increasingly taken over by ultra-conservative actors (“pro-family,” anti-gender, and opposed to abortion rights). Since 2024, C-FAM, an ultra-conservative U.S. platform, has organized the Conference on the State of Women and Family (or CSWF), a parallel event where these positions are propagated. Furthermore, since last year, the CSW has become a stage for showcasing the ideology and political coercion of the Trump administration, which even co-sponsors several of the ultra-conservative events.
In 2026, as a result of these political conditions, for the first time in decades the CSW’s Agreed Conclusions were not negotiated during the first week, but were instead adopted by a vote. As soon as the debates began, the United States proposed numerous amendments to the text, most of them opposing the term “gender” and sexual and reproductive rights, but also proposing the elimination of the paragraph condemning unilateral measures, such as the imposition of tariffs. The approach adopted by the Plenary Coordinator, with the support of the board, was to vote on the amendments en bloc, which led many countries that might have voted with the U.S. on “gender” issues to abstain because they strongly reject unilateral measures. Consequently, the text was adopted with one vote against: that of the U.S. itself.
However, a few days later, in a devious move, the United States presented a new draft resolution. The text, titled “Reaffirming the Language to Protect Women and Girls”, falsely claimed that, in Annex 4 of the Platform for Action of the Beijing Conference (1995), the term “gender” had been defined as meaning “man and woman.” Annex 4 does indeed exist, but it does not contain this definition, which is, however, recorded in the final document as a Vatican reservation. The new U.S. resolution, however, was not put to a vote, as the Commission’s plenary approved a procedural motion against which only the U.S., Pakistan, and Chile voted, marking a second defeat for the U.S. at CSW 70. An article from Portal Catarinas and other analyses in our compilation provide further details on what happened, its background, and implications.
The U.S. strategy of undermining established consensus is part of a broader context in which attacks on what was agreed upon in Vienna, Cairo, and Beijing in the 1990s came from many quarters. For example, the United States, Paraguay, and Argentina organized a side event to revitalize the Geneva Consensus.
It is worth noting that these clashes are taking place against the backdrop of the deep crisis affecting the UN and multilateralism more broadly. As Argentine feminist lawyer Edurne Cardenas aptly analyzes in an exclusive article for SPW, what happened at the CSW should be understood as part of the broader debate over the meanings of gender, rights, and democracy, which call into question the normative and institutional foundations that for decades have underpinned the gains of feminist politics on the international stage. Precisely for this reason, she argues, despite the setbacks, the CSW remains a crucial space for the transnational coordination of feminisms.
Persistent Erosion of LGBTQIA+ Rights
Africa
In March 2026, there were also drastic setbacks in the area of LGBTQIA+ rights amid a decline in democratic conditions. In Senegal, a law was enacted that doubles the prison sentence for same-sex relationships. As soon as it went into effect, the first arrests were recorded. We share the article by Senegalese feminist Rama Sala Dieng, which analyzes the domestic conditions and geopolitical factors that explain the political appeal and popular support for the new discriminatory law.
In the context of West Africa, it is worth recalling that last September, in Burkina Faso, drastic criminal legislation targeting LGBTQIA+ people was adopted. In March 2026, Captain Traoré, who has ruled the country since the 2022 military coup, stated at a press conference that “people should forget about democracy, because democracy kills.”
In Ghana, a bill that also criminalizes same-sex relations and punishes people identified as LGBTQIA+ has been reintroduced in Parliament.
Meanwhile, in Malawi, as reported by El País, the crisis in the healthcare system—triggered by the suspension of funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—has severely impacted the lives of LGBTQIA+ people. The persistent wave of extreme policies against LGBTQIA+ people was the subject of a Guardian article detailing the context and activities of religious groups.
India
Last but not least, the Indian Parliament has passed a law restricting the right to self-determination of people whose gender identity differs from the cisnormative standard. This setback is particularly unusual because gender identity diversity is inherent to Indian culture. Artistic depictions of androgynous bodies date back millennia, and hijra communities and individuals are present throughout the subcontinent. Furthermore, the new regulations run counter to historic decisions by the Indian Constitutional Court, beginning in 2018 with the repeal of Section 377 of the Penal Code—a colonial-era provision that criminalized sodomy—following a nearly 20-year struggle.
The compilation prepared by SPW shows how immediate and vigorous the protests were and provides analyses of the law’s many problems. Among these, the assessment by The Leaflet—a platform run by human rights experts—is particularly insightful, as summarized in the following paragraph:
The 2026 law abolishes the legal right to self-perceived gender identity. It replaces the existing definition of a transgender person—which was broad, based on the Constitution, and explicitly inclusive of trans men, trans women, and non-binary people—with a restricted list of sociocultural identities and medicalized categories. It inserts a “retroactive clause” that goes back in time to erase the legal recognition already granted to thousands of people. It introduces a multi-step process before a medical commission as a prerequisite for obtaining a transgender person certificate. It requires hospitals that perform gender-affirming surgeries to report their patients’ data to state authorities. And it creates a new set of crimes punishable by sentences of up to life imprisonment, based on the premise that trans identities are forced, while leaving existing penalties for violence committed against trans people unchanged.
In Brazil, anti-gender policy has evolved into anti-trans policy
Also in Brazil, anti-gender policy took on new forms in March 2026. The month began with an unofficial visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem. As Dani Avelar reports in an article published by Azmina, during the week she spent in the country, Reem Alsalem reiterated her transphobic and trans-excluding positions on several occasions. At a Senate hearing convened by Senator Damares Alves, the convergence of her positions with those of the far-right became clear, as the rapporteur shared the podium with: the senator and her chief of staff (who served as Minister of Women, Family, and Human Rights when Damares stepped down in 2022); one of the directors of Mátria; and the president of Instituto Isabel, an institution associated with Opus Dei that works in legal partnership with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the largest global ultra-conservative platform in the United States dedicated to strategic litigation. [1]
Reem Alsalem’s visit also sparked widespread discourse opposing the right to self-identified gender identity and, in our view, should be seen as a precursor to the uproar triggered by Érika Hilton’s election to the National Congress’s Joint Committee on Women’s Rights. Opinion polls conducted during the uproar found that the majority of those surveyed opposed her election. This result cannot be separated from the wave of attacks, which began during the rapporteur’s visit and, following a transphobic comment by TV host Ratinho, made the congresswoman the primary target. However, as shown by the online survey conducted by the Democracy in Check Institute and the compilation by SPW, Erika also received a significant amount of support from a wide range of sectors.
More comprehensive information on trans and anti-trans policies can be found in our new monthly bulletins dedicated to this topic. Issues #1, #2, and #3 of the Trans Policies Bulletin are now available.
Farewell
In March, the Brazilian HIV/AIDS movement lost Juan Carlos de La Concepcion Raxach, a physician and tenacious human rights activist in the fight against the epidemic. The passing of Juan, Project Coordinator at ABIA, was a personal loss for everyone who knew him. SPW has compiled the countless expressions of grief that have been shared, as a way to honor him and an attempt to fill the void he left behind.
Sexuality & Art
Françoise Gilot leaves Picasso – Informatify
We Recommend
Articles
Democratization, Far Right, and Violence
The Americans Shaping Europe’s Far-Right Ecosystem – GPAHE
The Rapid and “Unprecedented” Collapse of American Democracy – The Nation
The Untimely Death of Civil Rights in America – Robert Reich
Anti-Gender Politics
Trump’s new budget turns the FBI into the gender police – Advocate
The Camps Promising to Turn You—or Your Son—Into an Alpha Male – New Yorker
Global Arenas
Feminisms
Resistance through feminist storytelling – Global Voices
Publications and Resources
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[1] The ADF describes itself as “the world’s largest Christian legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, freedom of speech, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family, and parental rights.” It has coordinated several successful strategic lawsuits, including the one that led to the 2022 overturning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which recognized the constitutional right to abortion. The Isabel Institute worked in partnership with ADF International, headquartered in Vienna, on legal actions against transphobic speech brought by Érika Hilton (2020) and the National Secretary Symmy Larrat (2025).