UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) and the Reality of Access to Justice in Modern Courts

The 70th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) session, held March 9–19 at the United Nations Headquarters, is the UN’s largest annual gathering dedicated to gender equality and women’s rights.

This year’s theme was “Ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls, including by promoting inclusive and equitable legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies, and practices, and addressing structural barriers.”

Not only did the theme set an important global agenda, it also raised s a more fundamental question:

What does “access to justice” actually look like in practice?

In many courtrooms today—particularly in domestic violence cases—the barrier is not just legal. It is operational.

In parts of the US, a severe shortage of court reporters means that hearings are proceeding without any official record at all. For survivors, that has profound consequences. If a hearing is not captured, it cannot be reviewed. If it cannot be reviewed, it cannot be appealed. If it cannot be appealed, access to justice effectively ends at the courtroom door. In these situations, the record is not administrative—it is foundational to justice itself.

Evidence from US courts shows how widespread and consequential these barriers have become. In California, advocacy organizations have filed lawsuits arguing that court reporter shortages are impairing equal access to justice, particularly for domestic violence survivors. In 2024, more than one million hearings and trials proceeded without a method of capturing the court record. In many family courts, litigants are not permitted to make their own recordings, leaving them entirely dependent on court reporters.

Access to that record, however, is inconsistent. In some cases, it depends on whether a court reporter is available. In others, whether a litigant can afford one. The result is a significant divide: a system where the ability to challenge a decision, demonstrate a pattern of harm, or protect oneself can hinge on whether a proceeding was captured at all.

Even when private court reporters are available, costs can reach up to $4,000 per day, placing the ability to preserve a record out of reach for many who need it most. Without a transcript, an appeal can become virtually impossible—forcing some survivors into outcomes that may include loss of custody, financial hardship, or pressure to return to unsafe environments.

Structural Barriers

This is where the concept of “structural barriers,” highlighted in CSW70, becomes very real. Structural barriers are not only embedded in laws or policies—they also exist in the day-to-day functioning of justice systems:

This reality also highlights something often overlooked: an inclusive and equitable legal system is not defined solely by its laws, but by whether its processes are accessible, reliable, and reviewable in practice.

A legal system cannot be fully inclusive if its records are incomplete. It cannot be fully equitable if access to those records depends on resources. It cannot meaningfully eliminate discrimination if individuals are unable to obtain or use the record of their own case.

This is why the role of trusted, accessible court records is becoming increasingly central to justice reform. Ensuring that proceedings are reliably captured, transcribed in a timely manner, and made available in formats that are both searchable and secure ultimately enables justice to be reviewed, challenged, understood, and improved over time.

As CSW70 calls for stronger, more inclusive legal systems, there is an opportunity to broaden the lens. Ensuring access to justice for women and girls does not end with legislative change. It depends on whether justice systems are equipped to consistently capture the truth of what happens in every proceeding—and make it accessible to everybody, including those who need it most.