Opening Remarks by USG Zainab Hawa Bangura, UNON Director-General on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Women’s Day 2026
Thursday, 5 March 2026, Press Room, 11:00 hours
Theme: “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.”
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Excellencies, colleagues, partners, friends, ladies and gentlemen:
Good morning! Karibuni Nairobi and the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) — our home and the heartbeat of environmental multilateralism and indeed all facets of multilateralism on the African continent. Today, at the UN Gigiri complex, we are commemorating the International Women’s Day 2026 under the theme “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”.
This year’s observance sits squarely in the continuum of CSW70 and Beijing+30. The call—“Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls”—asks us to move beyond rhetoric. Rights must be realized; justice must be accessible; action must be measurable. Our task in Nairobi is to make these global frameworks work for real people, in real places, with real results, starting with our very own community, the UN family in Kenya and those around us. Let us remember that today is not a stand-alone commemoration; it is a milestone in a long relay of commitments we must carry forward—faster, further, and together.
From this very campus, the United Nations Office at Nairobi connects Africa to the world and the world to Africa. UNON is the only UN Headquarters in the Global South—a responsibility and a strategic advantage. Here in Nairobi, environmental governance, digital transformation, and gender equality intersect every day. Our charge is clear: translate global norms into tangible outcomes for women and girls across Africa (and indeed across the globe in
areas of our respective mandates) — in laws and budgets, in classrooms and boardrooms, in laboratories and on the land.
Access to justice cannot stop at the courthouse door. It must reach digital spaces, where abuse and disinformation silence women’s voices especially in today’s growing world of Artificial Intelligence where governance in this space is yet to be properly defined; environmental decision-making, where data and science guide policy; and economic life, where entrepreneurship and dignified work open pathways out of poverty. Women in STEM are critical to this transformation. Their innovations—from satellite data to community sensors, from AI tools to open data platforms—strengthen accountability, inform public policy, and expand the rule of law for everyone.
With technology advancements, we are faced with new challenges relating to Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV)—a new frontier of rights and accountability. As women lead in science, climate action, and human rights defense, they encounter new risks online: harassment, surveillance, doxxing, and coordinated attacks. Tackling TFGBV is now core to our human rights and governance agenda. We must work with platforms, regulators, civil society, and youth to prevent harm, protect survivors, and prosecute offenders, while upholding privacy and freedom of expression. Inside the UN system, we will strengthen digital safety standards, embed survivor-centred protocols, and support evidence-driven policy and reporting that make the internet safer for all women and girls.
Nairobi is home to the global architecture of environmental governance. Women scientists, innovators, and environmental defenders are not a “nice-to-have”—they are indispensable to climate resilience, biodiversity protection, and a just transition. Yet too many women and girls face violence, online attacks, criminalization, and exclusion from decision-making. We must therefore champion safe participation, fair resourcing, and equal representation—from community monitoring and early-warning
systems to national delegations and global negotiating tables. When women lead in science and environment, societies become safer, economies grow greener, and democracies become more accountable.
Today’s event showcases what is possible when we act as One UN. I warmly commend the inter-agency collaboration led by UNON, UN Women, UNEP, UN-Habitat, UNESCO, and our many partners. This is how we turn normative frameworks into lived realities: by aligning mandates, pooling expertise and resources, and holding ourselves accountable for results that matter to women and girls in Kenya, across Africa, and around the world.
Thank you all for being a part of this day and this movement! From rights to justice to action—let Nairobi lead the way. Asanteni sana.