A Balancing Act: Engagement on a Global Stage

By Linh Dang, Menzies Leadership Foundation, CSW Fellow 2026

Walking into the UN, I expected to be struck by the scale of it all, the people, even the sense of history in the room. But while all those things were true, as we took our seats for the opening ceremony of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), one specific detail kept pulling my attention.

English filled the space. Around it, a carefully structured system worked to keep up, with translators in glass booths relaying speeches into Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish. In front of our tables were headsets carrying these translations across the room. 

And yet, even within this system, its limits were apparent. For those whose languages sit outside the UN’s official six, translation did not come through a headset at all. Instead, it was improvised, with propped up phones and makeshift Google Translate interpreters to stay included in the conversation.

Watching this, it became clear that language was not just facilitating the space. It was shaping who could move through it with ease, and who had to work harder to keep up. And so, even in a room designed for global dialogue, with the priority theme being ‘access to justice’, ironically, access to understanding was uneven.

In a forum like the Commission on the Status of Women, where conversations shape negotiations and consequently global commitments, the difference between understanding the words and understanding the intent can influence how decisions are made. This made me reflect on the layers of participation that exist in these spaces. While being physically present is pertinent in the ability to participate, being able to meaningfully engage and contribute to discourse is an equally essential criteria in doing so. 

Instinctively, as much as I was observing the structures around me, I was also conscious of what it meant for me to have reached that space at all.

Attending the CSW has been a goal of mine since I first studied Global Politics in high school. At the time, it felt distant, something reserved for diplomats and policymakers. As a young Vietnamese Australian woman, this was simply not a room I thought I would ever have a place in.

And yet, there I was, sitting among world leaders, advocates, and trailblazing figures, watching the opening ceremony of the UN’s 70th session unfold. It was surreal, not only because of the scale, but because of what it represented: people from every corner of the world brought together by a shared commitment to advancing gender equality.

What continues to stay with me was the tension of that moment. On one hand, the inequalities within the space were impossible to ignore. But on the other hand, there was still something deeply significant, and even hopeful, in the fact that this gathering continues to happen at all. At a time when the rights of women and girls are increasingly fragile, contested, and in some places actively rolling back, there was something powerful about seeing countries still convene, year after year, to make public commitments toward progress.

That did not erase the contradictions of the space. But it did remind me that imperfect spaces can still matter. They can still be sites of pressure, accountability, solidarity, and possibility. Sitting in that room, I felt both the weight of its limitations and the importance of its existence. For all its flaws, it was still a place where gender equality was being defended and imagined collectively.

-------

The views and opinions expressed by Global Voices Fellows do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation or its staff.