(Sydney) – The Australian government should strengthen gender-focused approaches across all crisis responses, Human Rights Watch said today following International Women’s Day. The authorities should acknowledge that gender equality is essential to global peace, security, and justice by supporting women-led organizations and ensuring that women are meaningfully included in decision making.
Human Rights Watch in February 2026 made a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade inquiry addressing gender equality as a national security and economic security imperative. Human Rights Watch highlighted the gender-related impact of conflict, crisis, and climate change; the dangerous erosion of the basic principles of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; and the need to push for a gender-sensitive UN crimes against humanity treaty.
“International Women’s Day is a key opportunity for the Australian government to be thinking about gender equality, both domestically and abroad,” said Daniela Gavshon, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. “Human Rights Watch’s submission to the Joint Standing Committee emphasizes that undermining gender equality violates international human rights law, fuels instability, and weakens countries’ resilience to crises.”
Amid rising militarism, attacks on women human rights defenders, and efforts to roll back gender rights across the globe, Australia’s leadership in advancing and defending the Women, Peace and Security agenda is paramount, Human Rights Watch said.
The Australian government should support the development of an international treaty on crimes against humanity, which provides a crucial opportunity to strengthen international criminal law protections for women and girls, and support such as creating the crime of gender apartheid. Australia should expand asylum pathways for women and girls fleeing persecution and adopt a feminist foreign policy that places the rights of women and girls at the center of all foreign policy, defense, and national security decisions, Human Rights Watch said.
“Australia has the tools to effectively promote women’s rights around the world, including a foreign minister committed to gender equality and having an ambassador for gender equality,” Gavshon said. “The Australian government can become a global leader on women’s and girls’ rights by making them a more prominent part of its foreign policy.”
