The Conferences
After Beijing, 1995-Now
New generations of advocates have continued to push for change
What Came After Beijing?
As the tens of thousands of women in Beijing and Huairou dispersed, the advocates and world leaders who had convened there knew that their work was not done. “The measure of our success cannot be fully assessed today,” Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland said as the conference closed. “It will depend on the will of us all to fulfill what we have promised.”
What governments had promised was ambitious: the Beijing Platform for Action, a roadmap for advancing gender equality in 12 key areas like poverty, education, violence, and economic empowerment. It was meant to spark lasting change and ignite global action for stronger government policy commitments, regular UN reviews of implementation, and regional assessments of progress on gender equality.
The four UN World Conferences on Women from 1975 to 1995 had been Act I—in which the global women’s movement came of age, rapidly and thrillingly, over the course of two decades. When the curtain rose for Act II in the new millennium, the world had fundamentally changed, shaped by geopolitical and economic shifts, technological advances and consequences, new wars and old conflicts, environmental disasters, the ebb and flow of various social justice movements, and increased and well-organized backlash to the progress achieved. But despite the gulf of difference between 1995 and the ensuing years, the struggles for equality and rights for many women and girls all over the world largely remained the same. Deeply entrenched and stubborn fundamentals—violence, economic injustice, conflict, unpaid care work—continued to shape our lives.
Chinyere Eyoh, Executive Director of SOAR Nigeria and UNTF grantee, speaks at the UN’s official commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape.
Top: An activist with Ni Una Menos protests in Buenos Aires. (via UN Photo)
Bottom: Artwork featuring the call for "Woman, Life, Freedom"—a powerful protest slogan born from the Iranian women's movement.The New Responses
The global women’s and feminist movement adapted to this new world—both inside and outside the UN.
Feminist movements and grassroots organizing across the Global South continued to provide a model for all people looking to make change. Across the 2010s, women-led campaigns like the Ni Una Menos movement in Latin America gained traction, fighting against femicide and gender violence. Its sister movement, the Green Wave, succeeded in decriminalizing or legalizing abortion in multiple Latin American countries, from Mexico to Argentina. And feminist organizers who took part in the Arab Spring uprisings across Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya coordinated efforts to push for gender equality and political freedom.
As for the UN: There has not been a world conference on women since Beijing. But feminist leaders continue to advocate at the UN and lay the groundwork for a future where girls and women’s rights are central to global development, and they have won successes that should inspire us. Some key developments at the UN in the years since Beijing include:
During the early 2000s, an important victory for the global women’s movement and transnational feminist organizing came in the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which recognized the relevance of gender equality and women’s rights to national and international peace and security. The resolution changed the way in which Member States and the UN understand and address sexual violence in the context of conflict, formed the basis for 41 national action plans, and continues to be used by governments, multi-lateral agencies, women’s organizations, and peace activists to guide policies, programs, and funding.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) emerged from the UN Millennium Declaration in 2000, as a set of eight global development goals intended to align donor priorities and track quantifiable progress through associated targets. The MDGs were designed to draw attention to extreme poverty, primary education, maternal mortality, and other key issues and to measure progress on specific development priorities emerging from the UN conferences of the 1990s. And importantly, Goal 3 of the MDGs was to “promote gender equality and empower women.”
The creation of UN Women in 2010 was a historic step by UN Member States in accelerating UN goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women, and was a milestone in the post-Beijing era for how the global women’s and feminist movement can engage with the UN. Prior to UN Women, four separate entities at the UN had been tasked with advancing different aspects of gender equality—but after the Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign representing 300 women’s rights and social justice organizations called to establish a single more powerful institution instead, UN Women was born. The organization now delivers programs, policies and standards that ensure that every woman and girl lives up to her full potential.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offered a new opportunity for a revitalized global women’s and feminist movement to engage in large-scale UN advocacy, as they participated in the negotiations for this development framework, intended to guide the world through 2030. Thanks to the efforts of feminist advocates, the SDGs, adopted in 2015, include a stand-alone goal on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls—SDG 5, which addresses legal discrimination, sexual and reproductive health and rights, violence against women and girls, harmful practices, unpaid carework, women’s leadership and economic access, and more. Gender is also woven throughout the other goals and targets.
The Generation Equality Forum (GEF) was convened 25 years after the Beijing conference by UN Women in partnership with the governments of Mexico and France. The goal? To ensure “that the bold ambitions of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action on women’s rights are finally implemented, and that the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved.” The five-year initiative, from 2021 to 2026, is structured as a multi-stakeholder platform for commitments and action by governments, civil society and youth-led organizations, philanthropies, UN agencies and international institutions, and private sector actors. It has sought to pioneer a new model of multilateralism that engages diverse champions and allies for gender equality. GEF galvanized stakeholders around issues like gender-based violence, economic justice, bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, climate justice, and technology and innovation for gender equality through six Action Coalitions and a Compact on Women, Peace, and Security, and Humanitarian Action. Youth activists at GEF also created a Young Feminist Manifesto—calling for their inclusion in multilateral processes as true co-owners and not just token participants.
Top: The UN Foundation’s G&W Strategy team and its partners hosted a Latin America and Caribbean Regional Bridge-Building workshop in Mexico City, Mexico.
Middle: UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the opening of the Generation Equality Forum in Mexico City. (via UN Women)
Bottom: A colorful view of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) blocks on the northern lawn of United Nations Headquarters.Looking ahead, the next several years—from 2025 to 2027—will be critical for the UN System and for gender equality advocacy, with several consequential appointments and reform processes on the near horizon, including the appointment of the next Secretary-General and other important leadership positions, revitalization of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), and broader UN reform efforts, and preparations for the Post-2030 Agenda.
As these events unfold, ensuring that gender equality remains a central focus of the global work of the UN will require that women’s and feminist movements play a critical role in the process. They have led us forward for five decades—and we need them now more than ever.
“[The UN is] where I learned about power.”
— Peggy Antrobus, founder-member, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
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