source: Human Rights Watch

first published: 7 March 2025

Image Credit: Jakayla Toney at www.Pexels.com

From the United States to the Democratic Republic of Congo, women and girls’ rights have suffered serious setbacks. Despite the challenges, there also have been improvements and victories. Today, for International Women’s Day, Human Rights Watch’s Women’s Rights Division Director Macarena Sáez speaks with Amy Braunschweiger about the best and worst of women’s rights last year, and what Human Rights Watch is focusing on in 2025.

What went right in terms of women’s rights last year?

There are countries that lifted restrictions on women’s rights and have moved—albeit slowly—towards gender equality. You have Poland, where the new government that came to power in December 2023 stopped the previous administration’s trend of creating obstacles to abortion access. The country also expanded its rape law to recognize that sex without consent is rape. Previously, women and girls had to prove they resisted or fought their rapist.

In Mexico, states have been progressively decriminalizing abortion both through the courts and legislature, and last year its largest state, the State of Mexico, followed suit. This is good for millions of women and girls. Mexico also passed a constitutional amendment to guarantee equal payment and gender parity in federal and state government positions.

Elsewhere in Latin America, Chile has a new comprehensive law against gender-based violence. Importantly, the law includes “non-sexist education” as a component in combatting sexual violence.

To address the root causes of sexual violence, we have to educate children without using gender stereotypes and address social and cultural practices that enforce the idea that one gender is superior to another. Sexual and gender-based violence is still normalized in many spaces, and it’s through non-sexist education that young people can learn what consent means and what healthy sexual relationships look like.

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