No gender equality without trans women: European Parliament sets the standard for CSW70
TGEU welcomes the European Parliament’s Recommendation to the Council on EU priorities for the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The session will take place from 9 to 19 March 2026 in New York City.
CSW is the world’s largest intergovernmental body dedicated to promoting gender equality and holds an annual session. It culminates in the adoption of Agreed Conclusions, a policy guidance document negotiated under a different priority theme each year and setting out recommendations for UN Member States to advance global gender equality. This year’s theme is: Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers.
In a pivotal step, the European Parliament’s resolution recommends that the Council “emphasise the importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender equality and anti-violence policies; [and] call for recognition of and equal access for trans women to protection and support services.”
TGEU strongly welcomes this position, particularly amid a worrying global trend of scapegoating trans people. Attempts to sow division among women, particularly by excluding trans women from gender equality measures, are underpinned by hateful disinformation and political fearmongering and constitute a key tool for infringing upon women’s rights.
In another European Parliament report on the EU Strategy for Gender Equality, adopted in plenary in November 2025 and led by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, the Parliament already called on the European Commission “to explicitly include trans people, especially trans women and girls, in all gender equality measures [and] to standardise access to legal gender recognition.”
TGEU welcomes the Parliament’s stance on advancing gender equality and its clear recognition that undermining the human rights of trans women weakens the universality and inalienability of those rights for all women, thereby hindering progress towards substantive gender equality.
Yet, the demand consistently expressed by the European Parliament—which TGEU has advocated for over many years—has not yet been taken on board by the Council and the European Commission, which are ultimately responsible for translating these calls into effective policy measures at both EU and global levels.
TGEU calls on the Council to unequivocally adopt the European Parliament’s position in its recommendations for the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, ensuring that the EU speaks with a clear voice in defence of trans women’s rights at CSW.
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