US Under Trump Stands Alone Against UN Women's Rights Resolution As Vote Passes 37–1 To Cheers

The United States cast the only 'no' vote at the UN's premier women's rights body, triggering a standing ovation across the General Assembly Hall as 37 nations backed a landmark gender-equality document the Trump administration had fought to block.

The 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) opened at UN Headquarters in New York under the theme 'Ensuring and Strengthening Access to Justice for All Women and Girls.' It had been marked for weeks by an unusually combative US negotiating posture, and when the vote finally came, the result drew tears, applause, and near-universal condemnation of Washington's stance.

Six nations abstained: Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, and Saudi Arabia, while the United States stood entirely alone against the Agreed Conclusions, a document that, until this session, had always been adopted by consensus since that practice began in 1996.

A Historic Break from Consensus

The Commission on the Status of Women, established by ECOSOC resolution in 1946, is the UN's principal intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality. Its annual Agreed Conclusions carry significant normative weight, shaping laws and policies across member states. Since 1996, those conclusions had always passed by consensus, meaning governments could register reservations without blocking adoption outright. The 9 March vote shattered that 30-year practice.

According to the official UN Meetings Coverage press release WOM/2249, the US delegation, led by Dan Negrea, an ambassador to the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), first moved to defer consideration of the document, then called for the text to be withdrawn entirely, and finally tabled eight written amendments circulated the previous weekend.

Negrea opposed what he characterised as 'ambiguous language promoting gender ideology,' objected to references to sexual and reproductive health that he argued implied abortion rights, and took issue with proposed AI governance language, which he described as censorship. He also noted that the US had recently withdrawn from UN Women's Executive Board, stating the agency had 'recklessly promoted gender ideology and abortion.'

That withdrawal had been announced on 20 February 2026. UN Women's formal statement in response said it regretted the decision and would continue to 'champion the rights, dignity, and opportunities of every woman and girl.' In 2024, the US had contributed £7.5 million ($10 million) in voluntary funds and roughly £11.3 million ($15 million) in project funding to the agency, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The amendments Negrea presented on 9 March included a demand that the word 'gender' in the document's first paragraph be defined as referring 'only to men and women on the basis of biological sex, and not to subjective notions of gender identity.' The European Union, speaking through the Netherlands' representative, called on all delegations to vote against the entire package of amendments in one bloc. By a recorded vote of 26 in favour to 11 against, with five abstentions, the Commission agreed to treat the amendments as a single package. That package was then rejected: 26 against, 14 abstentions, and only the United States in favour.

The Hall Erupts As the Vote Goes Through

Commission Chair Maritza Chan Valverde of Costa Rica had, before the vote was called, told member states that 'every effort has been made to listen to delegations and to reflect the diversity of views expressed,' and that her Bureau was 'convinced that the text represents the most balanced outcome achievable at this stage.' When the final tally, 37 in favour, six abstentions, one against, was read out, the reaction inside the General Assembly Hall was immediate and emotional.

Jennifer Rauch, global advocacy officer at Fòs Feminista, a women's health coalition focused on reproductive rights access, was watching from inside the Hall. 'When the document was adopted by a vote, people were cheering, the whole room had a standing ovation,' she told Devex. She added that the outcome sent a clear message: 'Multilateralism is not dead. The UN system is still fighting for gender equality on the global stage.'

Christian Wenaweser, Liechtenstein's ambassador to the UN and one of the two co-facilitators of the negotiations, told Devex that the vote illustrated a reality members would need to accept. 'The reality today is that consensus and unanimity are not the same thing, so voting on the outcome was a necessary step and the result is probably as good as it gets for this year,' he said.

The session's opening had itself been charged. It coincided with International Women's Day and featured addresses from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock of Germany, and UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous. Guterres warned that gender equality 'is — and always has been — a question of power,' noting that women globally hold only 64 per cent of the legal rights enjoyed by men. Baerbock pointed out that no woman had ever served as Secretary-General in the organisation's 80-year history. Both statements were recorded in the UN News live coverage of CSW70's opening day.

Trump's UN Retreat and the Broader Pattern

The CSW70 vote is not an isolated incident. Since returning to the White House in January 2025, the Trump administration has systematically reduced US engagement with UN bodies that it associates with what it terms 'progressive ideology.'

The CSIS analysis notes that the administration has ended all support to UN Women, pulled out of the UN Human Rights Council, and signalled it does not intend to provide regular budget funding to the UN in its FY2026 budget proposals. A withdrawal from UNESCO is also under way, expected to conclude in December 2026.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) noted in a statement published ahead of CSW70 that the US had withdrawn from 66 different international organisations under the current administration, citing its own argument that these bodies had become dominated by progressive ideology detached from national interests.

The organisation also raised alarm about access restrictions: the US has imposed full or partial travel bans on around 40 countries, effectively preventing delegates and civil society advocates from those nations from attending CSW70 in person.

Whatever Washington's next move at the UN, the cheers that rang out across the General Assembly Hall on 9 March made clear that, at least for now, the world's consensus on women's rights does not depend on American approval.