The Trump administration hardly got a mention in scores of public speeches by foreign delegations at the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW, at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York.

But Washington was on everyone’s mind, reflecting heightened anxiety that it is not only rolling back the rights of women and other historically discriminated groups, but dismantling the entire multilateral system.

There was some relief that the U.S. delegation did not torpedo the adoption of a political declaration reaffirming the Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action, the 30-year-old landmark blueprint for advancing women’s equality and rights. And on Friday, the delegates overcame reservations by Washington’s ally, Argentina, to adopt a program of priorities to advance the cause of women over the coming years.

But Washington sent a strong signal that it plans to leverage its financial and diplomatic muscle to reverse a range of progressive U.N. policies, from access to sexual and reproductive health and rights to quotas tailored to achieve gender parity in U.N. institutions.

A view of the U.N. General Assembly Hall at CSW69. Photo by: UN Photo / Evan Schneider

In a farewell statement, Jonathan Shrier, acting U.S. representative to the U.N. Economic and Social Council, sharply criticized the political declaration, saying it lacked clear language recognizing “women are biologically female and men are biologically male.”

He took aim at a provision of the declaration’s recognition of a right to global development, attacked government regulation of online content as suppressing free speech, and denounced the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

“We will no longer reaffirm them as a matter of course,” Shrier said. He also raised concern about references to climate change before his microphone was silenced for surpassing the allotted speaking time.

While several delegations expressed frustration that the final declaration made no explicit mention of women’s sexual reproductive health and rights, they appeared relieved that the U.S. had not blown up the entire process.

“It’s been a weird CSW,” said Ishaan Shah, a U.K.-based advocate with the Young Feminist Caucus. “People are not really addressing the elephants in the room, obviously now the U.S., but also this growing move to authoritarianism, the right-wing underfunding, aid cuts, that sort of thing.

“There is definitely this undertone of depleted funding, lack of resourcing, and growing anti-rights, anti-gender movement,” he added. “I think it’s been quite somber in that sense.”

Scoop: US pokes globalism in eye in women’s rights talks at UN