How debate about gender identity could undermine global efforts to protect victims of violence

Aided by the Trump administration, debate over gender identity has gone from being a touchstone of domestic culture wars to infiltrating the work of international groups – including those designed to protect vulnerable communities.

In March 2026, at the 70th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, a U.S. delegate submitted a draft resolution to define gender in alignment with what the representative described as “its ordinary, generally accepted usage, as referring to men and women.”

While this may seem like a relatively benign or procedural intervention, the proposed resolution invited significant blowback from other delegates. Sweden’s representative framed it as an attempt “to turn back the clock 30 to 40 years.” The resolution ultimately failed after being blocked from going to a vote by Belgium, on behalf of the EU.

Experts on gender, sexuality and conflict see the latest dispute over terminology at a key U.N. conference reflects a wider fight among the international community that has rumbled on for months and that this contest, moreover, threatens to undermine critical work to serve survivors of violence across the world. 

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