Countering backlash and safeguarding women’s rights
CSW 70 - Side event
Organised by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination in co-operation with OSCE/ODIHR and UN WOMEN
12 March 2026, New-York
Speech by Ms Petra Bayr
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
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Dear Secretary General,
Dear fellow parliamentarians,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I am proud to be here at CSW70 to reinforce our Assembly’s commitment to gender equality and women’s rights. Coming from Austria, I have worked for many years on these issues in my national parliament and within PACE, bringing this experience to my new role.
Our topic today is timely and, unfortunately, necessary. For decades, women’s rights have been at the heart of the human rights project in Europe and worldwide, helping to make our societies more democratic, more just and more resilient. Yet today these rights are under sustained and coordinated attack, both in Europe and beyond.
We are witnessing attempts to roll back hard‑won gains: from restrictions on access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, to attacks on women human rights defenders, to online and offline harassment. This backlash is not accidental; it is political, ideological and often well‑funded.
In Europe, this is visible in several worrying trends: persistent violence against women, including in politics; attempts to roll back protections related to bodily autonomy; and a climate in which gender equality is framed as a “threat” to so‑called traditional values.
The digital space has become a new frontline. While it offers powerful tools for mobilisation, it is also used to spread gendered disinformation, coordinate harassment and intimidation campaigns, and amplify misogynistic hate speech. Women politicians in Europe face more uncivil messages than men, regardless of profile, from analysis of 23 million tweets across Germany, Spain and the UK. The result is a chilling effect on women and girls who wish to speak up, run for office or remain in leadership positions.
This backlash also directly targets our shared legal standards. The Istanbul Convention remains the most advanced and comprehensive international standard on violence against women. Yet it has become a battleground for disinformation and manipulation campaigns, which hinder new ratifications and even threaten withdrawals in some States; as recently as October 2025, when Latvia’s Parliament voted 56–32 to withdraw, halted only by a presidential veto.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been sounding the alarm about these developments for many years. Through its resolutions and debates, it has consistently called for a strong response to backlash and anti‑gender movements. Last June, the Assembly adopted a resolution on the situation of women’s rights in Europe which was, in many ways, a direct continuation of our exchanges during CSW69. This debate showed that while there has been real progress, women’s rights in Europe remain uneven, fragile and vulnerable to political winds, and that enormous political and financial resources are being invested in anti‑gender campaigns. It called on member States to go on the offensive: to demand more, not less; to set higher standards, not row back to lower ones.
We have also produced key texts on violence against women in politics, and on sexism and sexual harassment in parliaments. I am proud that, as a result of measures taken over the years, women now make up half of our members and that we have reached parity in our committee work. When many women enter politics, politics itself begins to change: priorities shift, debates broaden and new solutions emerge.
This side‑event focuses on countering backlash and safeguarding women’s rights. To do so, we must understand the sources of backlash, build effective counter‑narratives and adopt robust legal and policy frameworks. Parliaments have a crucial role to play. They can act as opinion leaders, rejecting and exposing disinformation and hate speech targeting women and girls, both online and offline, while upholding freedom of expression. They can lead too by example, by rejecting all forms of sexism, discrimination and misogynistic manifestations within their own parties and parliaments. They can adopt and enforce standards, like the Istanbul Convention, that protect women from violence. And they can ensure that justice systems are accessible, inclusive and responsive to the needs of all women and girls, including those who face intersecting forms of discrimination.
At CSW70, where the priority theme is access to justice for all women and girls, we must remember that justice is not only about courts and procedures, but also about the social and political environment that allows women to claim their rights without fear, to participate fully in public life and to live free from violence. Our own institutions must lead by example by making parliaments free from sexism and harassment and by ensuring equal representation in decision‑making; this is essential if we want to strengthen trust in democracy and show that change is possible.
The backlash against women’s rights is real, but it is not inevitable. It can be resisted, and it can be reversed, if we act together. Our task is clear: to safeguard what has been achieved, to push for further progress, and to ensure that every woman and every girl, in Europe and worldwide, can enjoy her rights fully and equally.
I look forward to our discussion, to hearing your experiences and strategies, and to exploring how we can join forces to make our democracies truly equal and inclusive.
Thank you.