The 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women will convene at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9–19 March 2026. The session will bring together Member States, UN entities, and civil society organizations from around the world, and Rooftops Canada will be there virtually.  

This year’s focus is on strengthening access to justice for women and girls by promoting inclusive legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws and practices, and addressing the structural barriers that limit the prevent women and girls from fully realizing their rights. As the UN’s principal intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality, the Commission remains an important space for policy dialogue, accountability and collective action. 

Rooftops Canada will take part by co-organizing a virtual workshop with the Habitat International Coalition (HIC) titled “From Policy to Practice: Strengthening Access to Justice and Women’s Equitable Rights to Land and Housing in Sub-Saharan Africa.” 

The workshop will feature the Women’s Spaces Project (2022–2027), a five-year initiative supported by Rooftops Canada and implemented with partners in Angola, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda. The project responds to the persistent gap between progressive legal frameworks and women’s lived realities in informal settlements—where entrenched gender norms, institutional constraints, and limited gender-responsive data continue to undermine women’s land tenure security, housing rights, and livelihoods. 

Drawing on community-led practice, the session will present four interconnected pathways to justice: community-based paralegal support to prevent dispossession; strategic advocacy and legal literacy initiatives to challenge systemic discrimination; participatory digital land mapping to strengthen tenure recognition; and urban agriculture models linking housing rights to food security and economic resilience.  

By contributing these grounded, scalable approaches to the global dialogue, Rooftops Canada’s engagement at CSW70 will emphasize our commitment to bridging policy and practice, and to advancing women’s equitable access to land and housing through sustained, locally driven action.  

Dorothy Baziwe speaking at CSW69