CSW70 | Beyond Prison Walls: Weaving Networks for Women’s Access to Justice in the Americas

An estimated 730,000 women and girls are deprived of their liberty across the globe, a figure that has grown by nearly 60% since 2000 and continues to rise. In Latin America, the prison population of women increased by more than 50% between 2000 and 2020, driven mainly by punitive drug policies and “survival-crime” criminalization.

Between 60-80% of women deprived of their liberty in the region are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, many of them linked to poverty, coercion, or low-level roles in criminal organizations. In countries such as Mexico and Argentina, a significant proportion of women in prison face drug-related charges, and often lack access to adequate defense or context analysis.

Incarceration also disproportionately impacts racialized, Indigenous, migrant, and poor women. In Mexico, for example, Indigenous women face greater barriers in accessing defense and language support; in the United States, African American and Latina women are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. More than 70% of women deprived of liberty are mothers or primary caregivers, which amplifies the effects of incarceration on their families and communities.

The trajectories of criminalization are often characterized by previous violence: gender-based violence, economic exclusion, forced displacement, and caregiving responsibilities. However, justice systems continue to operate without a gender perspective or an intersectional approach, reproducing punishments that deepen inequality rather than guaranteeing effective access to justice.

This event will seek to address some of these ongoing issues and raise international awareness of the structural barriers that impede women deprived of their liberty from accessing justice. By highlighting the voices of women with lived experience of incarceration, the discussion will draw on practical perspectives and encourage horizontal exchange between participants.

The dialogue will enable attendees to identify common challenges, share strategies of resistance and community responses to criminalization, and generate recommendations for transforming justice systems from a gender and human rights perspective. It will also seek to strengthen transnational advocacy networks and alliances that promote joint agendas for access to justice and dignity for criminalized women throughout the Americas.

Beyond Prison Walls: Weaving Networks for Women’s Access to Justice in the Americas /

Más allá del castigo: Tejiendo redes para el acceso a la justicia de mujeres en América

Date: Friday, March 13, 2026

Time: 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. ET

Location: New York City Bar Association, 42 W. 44th St., New York

This event is hosted in partnership with the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU School of Law, CEA Justicia Social, and the Jailhouse Lawyer Initiative.

The discussion will be in English and Spanish, with interpretation available virtually via Zoom.

If you will require interpretation, please register here and bring your own device with headphones.

Register here to attend in person

Register here to attend virtually