UN General Assembly: 2026 Gender Snapshot Launch
September 23, 2026
By: Jane Charles-Voltaire
The International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) was proud to participate in the launch of the 2026 Gender Snapshot at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, bringing the voices and experiences of women judges into a global conversation about the urgent need to accelerate progress toward gender equality.
https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2026-09/the-gender-snapshot-2026-en.pdf
The message from the 2026 Gender Snapshot is stark: at the current pace of progress, it could take 171 years to achieve gender equality. The data on the judiciary is particularly telling. Only 31 of 175 Chief Justices are women, and women remain underrepresented in the positions that shape jurisprudence, set institutional priorities, and exercise the highest levels of judicial decision-making.
The event opened with powerful remarks from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and UN Women Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous, who underscored both the progress that has been made and the urgent need to accelerate change. Their message was clear: 171 years cannot be accepted as an inevitable timeline for gender equality, and “impossible” cannot be the language we use to define the future.
Justice Lana Krogan, Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench, Canada (IAWJ Regional Director), brought the perspective of women judges to a distinguished panel that included Dr. Tulia Ackson, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, Co-Founder of the Arch Collaborative and Co-Founder of the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice.
Justice Krogan spoke about IAWJ’s impact and the importance of ensuring that women’s experiences and perspectives are represented within the judiciary. As she explained:
“What works [for judiciaries] is to have women bring lived experiences to the bench. Our courts have toreflect the communities we serve. The judiciary must be representative of society, which serves to cultivate public trust and confidence in the system...The [IAWJ] understands that process is as important as the application of law, and processes have to be gender responsive, have to address the needs of all the people that come before the court.”
Equality in Law by 2030
Earlier that day, Justice Krogan and I also participated in a UNGA81 side event, “Equality in Law for Women and Girls by 2030: Renewing Global Leadership,” sponsored by UN Women, Equality Now, the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
We are pleased to share the recording for the event for those who would like to hear the conversation in full (passcode: ubaq+15#).