High-Level Side Event:

"Women’s Access to Justice in Post-Crisis Settings" A High-Level Side Event at the 70th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70)

3/8/2026

 "Tomorrow, Monday, 9 March 2026, a high-level side event will be convened at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, titled: 'Women’s Access to Justice in Post-Crisis Settings: Pathways to Care, Recovery, Resilience, and Sustainable Peace.'

The event is co-organized by the Republic of Lebanon, the Arab Women Organization, UN Women, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), on the margins of the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70).

Women and girls across the globe face multifaceted and intersecting forms of discrimination and vulnerability due to armed conflict, climate shocks, natural disasters, economic crises, and political instability. These crises severely undermine women’s access to justice, thereby impeding their ability to uphold their rights, secure livelihoods, access protection from violence, and participate in recovery and reconstruction efforts."

In crisis and post-crisis settings, justice systems are often compromised, inaccessible, or discriminatory. Institutional fragility, the loss of legal documentation, harmful social norms, and biased laws all impede women's access to courts, administrative services, reparations, labor protections, and social safety nets. Survivors of violence—including sexual and conflict-related violence—as well as displaced women, female heads of households, and women with disabilities, face compounded exclusion. When justice systems fail, recovery efforts risk perpetuating existing inequalities rather than addressing them.

Access to justice must be understood as a transformative, multidimensional concept. It encompasses protection from violence—particularly violence against women—along with civil, family, property, labor, and social protection rights. Furthermore, it extends to distributive and economic justice, as well as ensuring women's access to opportunities, resources, and recovery funding.

Justice determines who can reclaim land and housing, return to work, access compensation or social protection, and participate in rebuilding economies and societies. Without justice, recovery can be neither inclusive nor sustainable.

During conflicts and socio-economic crises, including health pandemics, the demand for community-level care rises sharply while care services and infrastructure deteriorate. It is estimated that women in fragile and conflict-affected settings spend nearly four times as much time as men on unpaid care work.

In times of crisis, the burden of unpaid and underpaid care work on women increases significantly, as they provide care for injured or ill family members, displaced relatives, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.

However, this vital work remains legally and economically invisible. When care is not recognized, women are excluded from labor protections, social security, pensions, and recovery funds, depriving them of economic recovery and long-term security. This renders care not only a social issue but also a matter of justice.

Simultaneously, marginalized women and girls face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination during conflicts. For instance, women and girls with disabilities are disproportionately affected by physical barriers, inaccessibility, a lack of support services, social stigma, and institutional exclusion. These factors prevent them from accessing courts, identity documents, protection services, and recovery programs.

Similarly, women in fragile and conflict-affected economies are disproportionately concentrated in informal, precarious, and unprotected employment. When markets collapse and employment opportunities vanish, women’s access to formal contracts, labor courts, social protection, maternity benefits, and pensions becomes severely restricted, leaving them with limited legal redress or pathways to recovery.

In light of this, the theme of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women on access to justice offers a pivotal opportunity to frame justice not only as a legal right but as a cornerstone of recovery, care, and sustainable peacebuilding.

In the Arab region, marked by recurring conflicts, displacement, and economic shocks, gender-responsive justice systems are critical for rebuilding lives, restoring dignity, and ensuring women’s equal participation in recovery and social life.

This side event will explore avenues to support inclusive justice systems for women’s recovery in crisis-affected contexts, with a particular focus on marginalized women and girls, working women, and caregivers across the Arab region. The added value of this forum lies in providing a multi-stakeholder platform that contributes to crystallizing diverse regional perspectives on recovery and highlighting essential actions required.

Objectives:

Highlight access to justice as a cornerstone for women’s recovery, economic security, and social inclusion in crisis and post-crisis contexts.

Examine the barriers faced by women workers in both formal and informal sectors, as well as marginalized women and girls—including those with disabilities—in accessing justice, protection, and economic opportunities.

Strengthen care infrastructure and social protection services as an integral part of recovery and peacebuilding efforts.

Showcase good practices and policy approaches that promote non-discriminatory, survivor-centered, and inclusive justice systems.

Enhance coordination among governments, UN entities, regional organizations, and civil society to integrate justice and care into recovery, reconstruction, and redistribution frameworks.