In September 1995, over the course of two weeks, approximately 47,000 participants and activists from around the world gathered at the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to discuss a global path forward for empowering women and achieving gender equality. The result was the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a blueprint for improving the lives of women and girls by reducing gender gaps in health, education, economic opportunity, and empowerment. One hundred and eighty-nine countries adopted this policy plan for addressing gender discrimination, which identified 12 areas for action, including the need for all girls to obtain an education, representation at the highest levels of government and business, and ending poverty and violence. The Beijing Declaration also stated-for the first time in a UN document-that making decisions about sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health choices, is a woman's human right.
As the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration approaches, there's broad consensus that progress has been made toward gender equality, but it's been uneven. A recent UN report, Tackling Social Norms: A Game Changer for Gender Inequalities, found that almost 90% of people-men and women-are biased against women in some way (in regard to politics, education, intimate partner violence, or reproductive rights, for example), and no nation has succeeded in achieving gender equality.
Progress and challenges. The life expectancy of girls today is eight years longer than it was in 1995. Yet, improvements in the quality of girls' lives differ significantly based on location and economic status, according to a recently released report from the United Nations Children's Fund, UN Women, and Plan International, A New Era for Girls: Taking Stock of 25 Years of Progress, which examines advances in several key aspects of girls' lives. Many girls and women continue to face the same challenges discussed 25 years ago. Among these are too few learning and life opportunities, institutionalized biases, and gender-based violence. Action must be taken, the report asserts, to improve girls' health and nutrition; ensure their access to 12 years of education; and end violence, including harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.
The report notes that women and girls face a multitude of barriers when making decisions about their health and well-being, especially when accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Too many are still unable to obtain care because of stigma, cost, or lack of autonomy, and the wider implications are significant. Barriers to sexual and reproductive health care, for instance, can impede efforts to end child marriage. "Adolescent girls' challenges and the solutions to them must be addressed holistically," according to the report, "as success in each area pushes progress in another."
Next steps. The 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women was scheduled to take place in March in New York City and focus on the progress that has been made since the signing of the Beijing Declaration. Because of the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, however, the meeting's general debate and side sessions were cancelled. The commission instead held an informal procedural meeting on March 9 to adopt a political declaration affirming its support of the document and emphasizing the need for continued action.
While observing International Women's Day a few days earlier (see http://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sgsm19995.doc.htm), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized why it's important to uphold this groundbreaking document and imperative that its goals be met: "Gender inequality is the overwhelming injustice of our age and the biggest human rights challenge we face." He noted that women's opinions and experience are often ignored, even in the current health crisis, in which few or no women participated in emergency COVID-19 meetings held in recent months, according to Guterres. Yet, he emphasized, "Women are as vulnerable to illness as men and they make up the majority of the health care workforce. There is no justification for women's continued exclusion."-Corinne McSpedon, senior editor