From March 9 to 19, the CSW70 is addressing ways to strengthen access to justice for all women and girls by promoting inclusive legal systems, eliminating discriminatory laws, and addressing structural barriers. Yet across many parts of the world, including Zimbabwe, justice cannot be measured only through laws and policies. It must be understood through the everyday realities women navigate in their economic lives, in their bodily autonomy, and in their access to land and environmental resources.

Gender equality in law and the gap in practice

Section 80 of Zimbabwe’s Constitution affirms that women have equal dignity with men and equal opportunities in political, economic, and social spheres. The Constitution also created institutions such as the Zimbabwe Gender Commission to investigate barriers to gender equality and promote women’s rights.

Over the years, laws such as the Sex Disqualification Act (1980), the Domestic Violence Act (2006), national gender policies, and the women’s quota system in parliament and local government have advanced women’s rights in the country. They are the result of decades of organizing by Zimbabwean feminist movements who pushed the state to recognize women’s rights within the law.

However, progressive legislation has not always translated into justice in women’s daily lives. The gap between legal commitments and lived realities remains significant.

Economic justice and the informal economy

Economic justice is one of the most glaring gaps. While women are legally entitled to earn a living, Zimbabwe’s prolonged economic crisis has pushed many into the informal sector for survival.

In urban areas, women dominate street vending and small-scale trading. According to World Bank data, women make up s Zimbabwean feminists Ireen Mudeka and Thando Gwinji have noted, women informal traders have limited access to credit and vending infrastructure, which forces them to sell inexpensive items like clothing and perishable food. Frequent harassment and raids from municipal and national security authorities confiscate their goods and threaten their safety.

Despite these challenges, women traders continue to organize collectively, advocating for more supportive policies and engaging local authorities to improve trading conditions.

Their experiences reveal how economic justice is not simply about access to work. It is about the conditions under which women can earn a decent living in dignity and security.

Reproductive justice and restrictive legal frameworks

Justice for women and girls also extends to bodily autonomy and reproductive health. The Termination of Pregnancy Act 1977 permits abortion only when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s physical or mental health, or when it results from rape or incest, which must be certified by a magistrate.

In a country where over 33% of girls are married before 18, and 1 in 4 women have experienced sexual unwanted and unsafe pregnancies are a significant threat to the health and lives of Zimbabwean women and children.

Despite years of advocacy by the Safe Abortion Coalition in Zimbabwe, a clause of the Medical Services Amendment Bill that expedited access to reproductive health services was removed during Senate deliberations in February 2025.

Debates on reproductive rights in Zimbabwe trigger strong moral and political reactions, particularly from religious and cultural institutions, and overlook the dangers faced by women and girls when reproductive choices are restricted.

Land rights and environmental justice

Gaps between justice on paper and in practice also riddle laws regarding land ownership and environmental governance.

While Zimbabwe’s legal framework recognizes women’s equal rights to own and access land, ownership patterns remain deeply gendered. Research by Rudo Gaidzanwa on Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Program shows that women received only a small proportion of redistributed commercial farmland. Eligibility criteria often required documented farming experience, financial resources, or asset ownership. These conditions have historically disadvantaged women.

And in many rural areas, women’s rights to land are tied to relationships with male relatives. This creates ongoing tension between constitutional guarantees of equality and patriarchal land governance systems.

Environmental justice concerns further complicate this landscape. Zimbabwe’s growing role in critical minerals supplies, such as lithium and chrome is reshaping rural communities. In mining areas, including Bikita and Goromonzi, extractive industries expose communities to air pollution, water contamination, and health risks affecting people, land, and livestock. These impacts are not gender neutral. Women often carry the burden of managing household water, food production, and community health, making them particularly vulnerable to environmental damage.

Whose voices are heard in global spaces?

As these realities unfold locally, global policy spaces remain important platforms for advocacy. For example, in January 2026, members of Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe met with UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda and Southern Africa Deputy Regional Director Adama Moussae. They discussed women in rural areas recovering from the long-term impacts of the Cyclone Idai disaster, women with disabilities navigating inaccessible public services, and young women seeking greater participation in decision-making spaces.

One of the most prominent global platforms for defending gender equality is the Commission on the Status of Women. However, it is increasingly out of reach for many frontline and grassroots feminists. Although always constrained by visa barriers, recent changes by the Trump administration have made participation in CSW next to impossible. Rising visa costs and new requirements, including a US $15,000 bond fee for Zimbabwean applicants, place participation far beyond the reach of many grassroots organizations with limited budgets.

While there have been suggestions to pool resources to maintain a presence at CSW, this raises an important question:

In response, alternative convening spaces are becoming more important. Platforms such as Disrupt CSW, organized by FEMNET, create opportunities for African feminists to collectively strategize, exchange experiences, and build solidarity outside the constraints of traditional Western diplomatic forums.

Justice beyond declarations

As CSW70 convenes, the challenge is not only to reaffirm commitments to gender equality, but to ensure that justice is grounded in the lived realities of women and girls. In Zimbabwe, these realities include women navigating precarious informal economies, restrictive reproductive health laws, unequal access to land, and environmental risks linked to extractive industries.

Addressing these issues requires more than sweeping progressive legislation or global declarations. It demands a deliberate focus on alleviating the structural inequalities that limit or endanger women’s lives. Especially now, in light of the latest proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill, which threatens to shrink democratic space and weaken governance by extending the Presidential term and removing the Zimbabwean Gender Commission as an independent constitutional body.

This blog was originally posted on the Financing for Feminist Futures website.