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At Equality Now we use the power of the law to dismantle deep rooted discrimination and inequality and build a just world for women and girls.

Overview

Every day, women and girls around the world face violence and discrimination. Sexual exploitation, violence, harmful cultural practices, and systemic inequalities violate their human rights and prevent them from reaching their potential.

Equality Now uses regional and international human rights law to hold governments accountable for their promises and to bring local issues to the attention of human rights bodies.

Equality Now’s work at a glance

Overturning sex discriminatory laws. Almost 60% of the discriminatory laws we’ve highlighted since 1999 have been fully or partially reformed.

Highlighting the urgent need for family law reform. Unafraid of difficult issues, we’re working with activists committed to tackling inequalities in family law, including distribution of marital wealth, child marriage, divorce, and custody. 

Ending impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence. From Georgia and Kenya to India and Bolivia, we work with partners to hold states accountable to their international obligations and ensure they enact and effectively implement laws that protect and promote the rights of women and girls to live free from sexual violence.

Achieving Legal Equality

A lack of legal equality promotes violence and discrimination, yet almost every country in the world has laws that treat people differently on the basis of sex.

Ending Sexual Exploitation

Sexual exploitation, a form of sexual abuse, is when someone abuses or attempts to abuse another person’s vulnerability or their own position of power or trust for sexual purposes.

Ending Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is a human rights violation that predominantly affects women and girls as a consequence of systemic and structural inequality.

Ending Harmful Practices

The term ‘harmful practices’ covers forms of violence or ritual discrimination, primarily committed against girls and women, that have become culturally normalized.

Our work

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Key resources

Words and Deeds: Sex Discrimination in Personal Status Laws

The 4th UN Conference on Women in 1995 was the birth of The Beijing Platform for Action, the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights. Governments around the world pledged to change or remove their …

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Submission to the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology on the Global Digital Compact from UN Women on behalf of the Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence; Equality Now; and the Alliance for Universal Digital Rights (AUDRi)

Under The Common Agenda, the UN Secretary General called for a Global Digital Compact to be agreed at the Summit of the Future (September 2024) to “outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all.” Ensuring that women’s rights organizations in all their diversity feed into this process is …

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Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Slavery (HCR) 78th session 2023

Equality Now respectfully submits this brief to the Office of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, in response to the call for input on the use of …

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None of us can afford to sit back and wait for equality to arrive – we need to act now. Only by working together will we achieve the legal and systemic change needed to address violence and discrimination against women and girls.


Take action

Still No Constitutional Equality in the US. Together, We Can Change That

Although the majority of senators voted on April 27th in favor of SJ Res 4, the resolution to recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment, it did not gain the required 60 votes required to pass. But the ERA is …

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International Day Of Families – Week of Action

This year for the International Day of Families on May 15th, the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law (GCEFL) is marking a ‘Week of Action’ between May 15 – 19th, and we invite you to join our efforts in ending …

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Tell Your Senators to Vote Yes on the ERA Today!

Surprisingly, the US Constitution does not guarantee equal rights for women. After 100 years of campaigning, we are so close to changing that.  Join our campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment by calling on your Senators to …

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