March 8th, 2026
On this International Women’s Day, the World Liberty Congress reaffirms that women’s rights are human rights, and that gender equality is a binding legal obligation under international law and an essential condition for democratic governance, peace, and sustainable development.
Across every region of the world — Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America — women continue to confront systemic discrimination, political repression, economic exclusion, and gender-based violence. Women politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society leaders face harassment, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, exile, and targeted violence. Women residents in fragile and authoritarian contexts remain unsafe in their own communities, deprived of protection, justice, and equal opportunity.
The persistence of structural inequality and institutionalised discrimination constitutes a grave breach of states’ obligations under international human rights law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and related instruments. In certain contexts, the systematic and deliberate exclusion of women from education, employment, mobility, and political participation amounts to gender apartheid. This crime demands formal recognition and codification under international law and warrants investigation, accountability, and enforcement.
The World Liberty Congress calls on the international community to move decisively from statements of concern to concrete measures of accountability. Impunity for systemic gender-based persecution must end. States that institutionalise discrimination must be held responsible through international legal mechanisms, sanctions where appropriate, and sustained multilateral engagement.
We further reaffirm the commitments enshrined in the United Nations Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security Agenda, beginning with Resolution 1325 and its subsequent resolutions. The WPS framework obligates states to ensure women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in peace processes, conflict prevention, political transitions, and post-conflict reconstruction. Excluding women from governance and public life not only violates human rights norms — it undermines international peace and security.
On this International Women’s Day, we:
• Call for the formal recognition and codification of gender apartheid as a crime under international law;
• Urge Member States to strengthen accountability mechanisms for systemic gender-based persecution and political imprisonment;
• Demand the immediate release of women detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms;
• Advocate for the protection of women politicians, journalists, and human rights defenders at risk;
• Call for the elimination of legal, structural, and cultural barriers preventing women’s equal participation in political, economic, social, and cultural life;
• Encourage governments to align domestic legislation and practice with binding international human rights obligations.
We affirm that equality is not aspirational — it is a legal duty. Democracy cannot function where women are excluded. Elections cannot be legitimate where women cannot freely participate. Development cannot be sustainable where half the population is denied opportunity. Liberty cannot survive under dictatorship or totalitarian rule.
We say no to authoritarianism.
We say no to systemic repression.
We say no to violence against women.
We reject regimes that silence, erase, or instrumentalise women for political control.
Gender justice is central to global stability, economic resilience, and democratic legitimacy. The empowerment of women — politically, socially, economically, and culturally — strengthens institutions and safeguards freedom for all.
On this day, the World Liberty Congress stands in solidarity with women everywhere who continue to resist oppression and demand accountability. The future of peace and democracy depends on their full, equal, and safe participation.
World Liberty Congress
