UN Conferences on Women

Introduction

• UN took gender concerns and women rights since its inception.
• The member states of UN were 51 in 1951, Out of 51 only 13 allowed women to right of equal vote and right to hold public office.
• In June 1946, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) established the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to ensure:
  • the empowerment of women and gender equality
  • to provide recommendations to the Council on the obstacles relating women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and education fields.
• Over the years, the CSW has organized different conferences in order to assert and improve the rights of women.
• So far, four world conferences on women have taken place:
  1. Mexico (1975)
  2. Copenhagen (1980)
  3. Nairobi (1985)
  4. Beijing (1995)

First World Conference - A Global Dialogue (1975)

• The first world conference on the status of women was convened in Mexico City to coincide with the 1975 International Women’s Year.
• The objective was to remind the international community that discrimination against women continued to be a persistent problem in much of the world.
• The Mexico City Conference was called for by the United Nations General Assembly to focus international attention on the need to develop future oriented goals, effective strategies and plans of action for the advancement of women.
• It was the largest international forum in which women themselves participated. Out of 133 states, 130 were headed by women.

• It was stressed on countries to make policies for women. Eastern states were more concerned on peace but western states were more concerned on the role of women in development.

• Major Concerns and Issues:
  • Discrimination against Women
  • Ensuring full Gender Equality
  • Participation of Women in Development
  • Social and Economic Integration for Women
  • Increased Contribution of Women in Global Peace
• UN also established two new divisions after the conference:
  1. INSTRAW (International Research And Training Institute for The Advancement of Women)
  2. UNIFEM (United Nation Development Fund for Women)

Second World Conference - The Review Process (1980)

• There was a general consensus that significant progress had been made as representatives of 145 Member States met in Copenhagen in 1980 for the second world conference on women to review and appraise the 1975 World Plan of Action.
• An important milestone had been the adopted by the General Assembly in December 1979: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, one of the most powerful instruments for women’s equality.
  • It is been called the ‘bill of rights of women’.
  • 165 states were obligated to report within one year of ratification, and subsequently every four years, on the steps they have taken to remove obstacles they face in implementing the Convention.
  • An optional protocol to the Convention enabled women victims of sex discrimination to submit complaints to an international treaty body.
• CEDAW Major Concerns:
  • Involvement of men in improving women’s role in society
  • Political participation and rights for women
  • Addressing women’s need in planning
  • Women in decision making
  • Extending the facility and services related to women at national level
  • Day care services
  • Credit services
  • Provision of financial services of women
  • Education and awareness among women
• Despite the progress made, the Copenhagen Conference recognized that signs of disparity were beginning to emerge between rights secured and women’s ability to exercise these rights.
• To address this concern, the Conference pinpointed three areas where action needs to be taken: education, employment and healthcare.
• In the conference, a program of action was introduced which included a list of activities:
  • Ensuring women’s ownership
  • Control of property
  • Right to inheritance
  • Child custody
  • Elimination of stereotypical attitudes towards women

Third World Conference - The Birth of Global Feminism (1985)

• The UN’s Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi represented the culmination of ten years of work on gender empowerment.
• It was attended by:
  • 1,400 official delegates from 157 countries
  • 15,000 NGO representatives
• The conference aimed to evaluate the progress made during UN Decade for Women and devise a new course of action for the advancement of women.
• The conference focused on issues like:
  1. violence against women
  2. role of women in ‘Peace and Development Initiatives’
• The Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies, a document adopted by the conference, urges member states to:
  1. take constitutional and legal steps to eliminate violence and discrimination against women.
  2. involve women in efforts to promote peace and development.
  3. equality in social participation.
  4. equality in political participation.
• The greatest achievement of the Nairobi conference is that there were 157 different states but they all agreed upon the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies.

Fourth World Conference - Legacy of Successes (1995)

• This conference was held in 1995 in Beijing.
• It is known as “legacy of success”.
• It was attended by:
  • 189 governments and states participated
  • 17,000 participants
  • 6,000 government delegates
  • 4,000 representatives of NGO’s
  • 4,000 representatives of media
• The Beijing Platform For Action (BPFA) was created in the conference. The main goals were:
  1. gender perspectives are reflected in governmental policies of national, regional and international levels.
  2. enhancing the social, economic and political empowerment of women
  3. improve their health and their access to education
  4. promote their reproductive rights.
• The action plan sets time-specific targets, committing nations to carry out concrete actions in such areas as health, education, decision-making and legal reforms with the ultimate goal of eliminating all forms of discrimination against women in both public and private life.
• 12 Areas of Platform For Action:
  1. Education And Training Of Women
  2. Women And Health
  3. Violence Against Women
  4. Women And Arm Conflict
  5. Women And The Economy
  6. Women And The Power And Decision Making
  7. Women And The Mechanism For Advancement
  8. Women And The Rights For Human
  9. Women And The Media
  10. Women And The Environment
  11. Women And The Girl Child
  12. Women And Poverty
• It was observed that implementation requires changes in values, attitudes, practices and priorities at all levels.
• The overriding message of the Fourth World Conference on Women was that the issues addressed in the Platform for Action are global and universal.
• Governments and the UN agreed to promote the “mainstreaming” of a gender perspective in policies and programs.

Follow-up Conferences

First Review Conference (Beijing +5) - New York (2000)

• The General Assembly decided to hold a 23rd special session to conduct a five-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
• The conference was called “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development, and Peace for the Twenty-First Century”.
• It resulted in a political declaration and further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing commitments.

Second Review Conference (Beijing +10) (2005)

• A 10-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action was conducted as part of the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).
• Delegates adopted a declaration emphasizing that the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is essential to achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration.

Third Review Conference (Beijing +15) (2010)

• The 15-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action took place during the Commission’s 54th session in 2010.
• Member States adopted a declaration that welcomed the progress made towards achieving gender equality, and pledged to undertake further action to ensure the full and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Fourth Review Conference (Beijing +20) (2015)

• The 20-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action took place during the Commission’s 59th session in 2015.
• The session also addressed opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda.
• Member States adopted a political declaration that welcomed the progress made towards achieving gender equality, provided a strong basis for the full, effective, and accelerated implementation of the commitments made in Beijing, and also championed the key role of gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda.

Fifth Review Conference (Beijing +25) (2020)

• In 2020, the global community will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).
• In the light of concerns regarding coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Commission on the Status of Women convened, on 9 March, for a meeting that included opening statements followed by the adoption of the draft Political Declaration. The session was then suspended until further notification.
• UN Women calls for accelerating its unfinished business and urges for delivery on the commitments made in the Beijing Platform for Action.
• Twenty-five years later, no country has fully delivered on the commitments of the Beijing Platform for Action, nor is close to it.
• A major stock-taking UN Women report published earlier this year showed that progress towards gender equality is faltering and hard-won advances are being reversed.
• Women currently hold just one quarter of the seats at the tables of power across the board. Men are still 75 per cent of parliamentarians, hold 73 per cent of managerial positions, are 70 per cent of climate negotiators and almost all of the peacemakers.
• Research shows the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating pre-existing inequalities and threatening to halt or reverse the gains of decades of collective effort – with just released new data revealing that the pandemic will push 47 million more women and girls below the poverty line.