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Professor Claudia Flores Urges UN to Act Now on Women’s Rights

Claudia Flores speaks at a podium standing with the stylized globe UN logo below the microphone, standing before a green marble backdrop
Professor Claudia Flores addresses the United Nations General Assembly. UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Important progress has been made for the rights of women and girls over the last three decades, but a backlash threatens those gains worldwide, Clinical Professor of Law Claudia Flores told the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Flores spoke at the Sept. 22 meeting marking the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women at the United Nations, where Hillary Rodham Clinton ’73 famously proclaimed that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.” The 1995 event produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the landmark document serving as the global agenda for gender equality. This week, more than 160 world leaders were slated to announce specific actions toward fully implementing the declaration.

Speaking as chair of the U.N. Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, Flores said in opening remarks that today’s challenges create both an opportunity and a responsibility.

WATCH: Professor Claudia Flores Addresses the U.N.

“We can and must celebrate the gains of the last 30 years, while recognizing that these victories belong, above all, to the brave women and girl human rights defenders and civil society leaders who have pressed forward in the face of great restraints and risk,” Flores said.

However, she noted, there is a “troubling wave of backlash” against gender equality initiatives.

“These are not abstract debates but concrete harms, with grave costs for women and girls,” Flores said.

A speaker speaks from the podium in front of a green marble dais and a large gold wall on which the UN seal — a stylized globe — is mounted
Flores speaks at the General Assembly Hall at U.N. Headquarters in New York, where world leaders were expected to announce steps to fully implement a 1995 platform for women’s empowerment.

Flores conveyed the working group's recommendations — outlined in its CREATE Framework — for how U.N. member states can address the backlash. She urged states to act now.

“We cannot afford another 30 years of effort only to see progress unravel,” Flores said. “What is needed now is investment and political will to hold the line, clarity to find ways forward amidst immense challenges, and the integrity to entrust greater leadership to women and girls as they continue to lead the way.”

Flores was appointed to the working group by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council in 2023, becoming chair this year. At Yale Law School, she directs the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic and is faculty co-director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights. Her teaching, scholarship, and practice center on international human rights, constitutional reform, global inequality, and state accountability.