GLOBALLY, more girls are now in school than ever before, fewer women are dying in childbirth and the proportion of women in parliaments has doubled across the world, showing major advances in women’s and girls’ rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action some 25 years ago.

Created in 1995 at the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the “Beijing Platform for Action” is a framework that covers 12 areas of concern in advancing women’s rights.
Ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8, the UN Women on Thursday launched “Women’s Rights in Review 25 years after Beijing”, a report analysing the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which remains the most comprehensive agenda for gender equality ever agreed on.

The report flags the lack of effective action to boost women’s representation at the tables of power and warns that the vision of the Beijing Platform for Action will never be realised if the most excluded women and girls are not acknowledged and prioritised.

UN Women’s Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said, “The review of women’s rights shows that, despite some progress, no country has achieved gender equality. This is not an inclusive and equal world and we need to take action now to create one that does not discriminate against women. Only half is an equal share and only equal is enough”.

Despite unprecedented global challenges, the report also proves that positive change is possible, as shown by the success of women’s collective action to obtain accountability for crimes against them. The report showcases successful initiatives in scaling up public services to meet women’s rights, from increasing access to contraception and childcare, to reducing domestic violence and increasing women’s participation in politics and peacebuilding.

The report is based on the UN Secretary-General’s Report, ‘A comprehensive exercise on women’s rights with contributions from 170 Member States’.

The report reveals that there have been advances in women’s and girls’ rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action with 131 countries having passed laws to support women’s equality over the past decade.

However, much work still remains to be done. Globally, progress on women’s access to paid work has ground to a halt over the past 20 years. Less than two thirds of women (62 per cent) ages 25-54 are in the labour force, compared to more than nine out of 10 (93 per cent) men.

Women continue to shoulder the bulk of unpaid care and domestic work, moreover nearly one in five women (18 per cent) have faced violence from an intimate partner in the past year, and 32 million girls are still not in school.

UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said, “2020 presents an unprecedented opportunity to turn things around for current and future generations of women and girls, to accelerate progress during the UN Decade of Action.
The UN Women has initiated six Action Coalitions that will mobilise governments, civil society, UN agencies, and the private sector to deliver game-changing results to advance equality for women and girls.