News headlines in March 2026

UNITED NATIONS, March 9 (IPS) - On International Women’s Day (March 8), global leaders and advocates gather around the rallying cry to strengthen justice systems for all women and girls in a time of increasing pushbacks on gender equality.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, March 9 (IPS) - Consider what International Women’s Day looked like a few years ago, and what it looks like now: the same date, the same global moment of reflection, but a vastly changed global landscape. Gender rights are facing the most coordinated and wide-ranging attack in decades. Anti-rights forces are dismantling protections secured after generations of struggle, destroying infrastructure built to address gender-based violence and realise reproductive rights and rewriting legal frameworks to roll back rights, with a specific focus on excluding transgender people. This is the result of a deliberate, carefully crafted, handsomely funded and globally coordinated strategy.

NEW YORK, March 9 (IPS) - As we observe International Women’s Day (IWD) this year, the global community does so in a time of continuing turbulence, conflicts and uncertainty about the future of our planet.

NEW YORK, March 9 (IPS) - International Women’s Day 2026 (IWD 2026), which was commemorated March 8, under the theme, “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls“, calls for action to dismantle all barriers to equal justice: discriminatory laws, weak legal protections, and harmful practices and social norms that erode the rights of women and girls. It demands an end to systemic violence and misogyny, including calls for justice for Epstein survivors.

ABUJA, March 9 (IPS) - Abimbola David still remembers being robbed twice in taxis in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The most recent incident occurred in 2023 when the robbers, who pretended to be passengers, took her belongings while the car was moving.

Conflict continues to fuel suffering and drive humanitarian needs in Myanmar, the UN relief coordination office, OCHA, said in a bulletin on Monday.

On day 10 of the war engulfing the Middle East, UN agencies on Monday reported massive displacement across the region, along with surging food and fuel prices that risk increasing hunger and suffering for the most vulnerable.

Welcome to our live coverage of International Women’s Day 2026 and the opening of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at UN Headquarters in New York. Throughout the day, we will bring you updates, reactions and key moments from across the UN system as global leaders, diplomats and advocates gather to mark International Women's Day and advance the theme “Rights. Justice. Action” for all women and girls.

Every morning in Kabul, several cars make their way across the Afghan capital to pick up the producers of Radio Begum. The young women do not travel to the office on their own as moving around the city has become too complicated.

Lebanon has been “dragged back into a state of turmoil and violence”, the UN’s top envoy in the country warned on Saturday, after the latest round of regional strikes triggered a fast‑escalating crisis along the Blue Line. What had been fragile but real momentum, she said, has now collapsed in a matter of days.