The Working Lunch on Gender Issues, The Hague, 5 July 2026THE HAGUE, 5 July 2026 – On the sidelines of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Annual Session in The Hague (4-8 July), OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues, the Hon. Dr. Hedy Fry (Canada), today presented her 2026 Gender Report entitled “Leaving No One Behind: Gender Equality in the OSCE Region.”
OSCE parliamentarians discussed the report during the Annual Session’s Working Lunch on Gender Issues, which examined gender gaps across the OSCE region, with a particular focus on areas where boys and men face specific challenges. The event explored how governments and parliaments can respond to these gaps and support healthy masculinity norms as part of a comprehensive approach to gender equality.
Special Representative Fry’s report, available on the OSCE PA’s website in English and French, puts health and education in the spotlight and considers the different ways in which women and girls and men and boys experience disadvantage in these areas. It points out that understanding the different experiences of women and girls and men and boys in these and other areas is key to ensuring that policymakers are well positioned to develop tools that foster gender equality for the benefit of all members of society. It also presents findings from surveys on gender stereotypes in the OSCE region and explores how restrictive masculinity norms may shape boys’ and men’s lives and well-being and provides recommendations to governments and parliamentarians of OSCE participating States on ways to address gender gaps in an inclusive manner.
“I urge governments and parliaments of OSCE participating States to make a sustained commitment to comprehensive, evidence-based and gender-responsive policymaking grounded in an intersectional approach,” said Dr. Fry. “This means the collection – and use – of disaggregated data, and policies tailored to the needs of different population groups.”
Against this backdrop, the report calls on “governments and parliaments of OSCE participating States to support efforts, particularly by civil society organizations, to challenge harmful gender norms and stereotypes. Such work is essential to fostering full gender equality and social cohesion.”
Part II of the report summarizes Dr. Fry’s activities and initiatives as OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues for 2025–2026. The report concludes with data on the gender balance in the OSCE PA Bureau and Secretariat, statistics on the participation of women in OSCE PA statutory meetings, election monitoring missions and ad hoc committees, as well as information on the representation of women in national parliaments of OSCE participating States.
Dr. Fry will also meet with civil society organizations (CSOs) working on gender equality in the Netherlands on 8 July. The meeting will provide an opportunity for CSOs to present their work, as well as to discuss challenges with regards to advancing gender equality.
To read the full version of Dr. Fry’s report on “Leaving No One Behind: Gender Equality in the OSCE Region” in English and French, please click here.
More information about the work of the OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues is available here.
For more information on the OSCE PA's 33rd Annual Session, please click here.
