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Beijing Conferences

UN Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace Beijing, China (1995)

The Fourth World Conference on Women, known as the Beijing Conference, generated the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA), the most comprehensive international instrument on women's human rights and one of the most progressive agendas for achieving the stated conference goals of "equality, development and peace for all women everywhere". The PFA calls on governments to protect a wide range of women's human rights, including the inclusion of women in the development process and political decision-making, and to address barriers to the fulfillment of these rights such as lack of access to health care and education, violence against women, armed conflict, destructive economic policies and racism.

Beijing +5: Women 2000:Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century (2000)

In 2000, the UN convened a Special Session of the General Assembly, commonly referred to as Beijing+5, to assess the degree to which governments had fulfilled their commitments to women's human rights since the 1995 Beijing Conference. While the process determined that "there had been no backward movement," in the status of women, it was also acknowledged that much more progress needs to be made. In particular, Indigenous women found that while their participation in Beijing and the adoption of the PFA strengthened their leadership skills and participation in national and international arenas, the impoverishment and marginalization of Indigenous Peoples had since worsened, with women disproportionately affected.

Beijing + 10: Review and Appraisal, 49th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (2005)

In March 2005, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will conduct Beijing+10 to carry out a 10-year review of the progress made on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Among other objectives, Beijing+10 will also seek to "integrate a gender perspective in the implementation and review of the Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals." The Millennium Development Goals were agreed upon by world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 and aim to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people around the world in measurable ways by 2015.

MADRE has played an active role in all of the Beijing Conferences and their preparatory and follow-up processes.

During Beijing and Beijing+5, MADRE:

• Registered over 60 Indigenous women to participate in the original Beijing Conference;
• Brought women's human rights activists and scholars to participate in workshops and drafting committees of the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA);
• Organized the first International Indigenous Women's Forum, through which over 60 Indigenous women from Asia, Africa, Europe/Arctic, the South Pacific, Latin America, and North America came together to prepare for Beijing+5 through trainings, information sessions, workshops and strategy sessions and facilitate the participation of over 120 Indigenous women in Beijing+5;
• Brought community women and academics from the US, Kenya, Haiti, Nicaragua, Rwanda, and Guatemala to participate in panels and discussions on labor rights, women's human rights and the rights of Indigenous Peoples at Beijing+5.

During Beijing+10, MADRE:

• Sponsored the International Indigenous Women's Forum conference in New York City: Bringing Indigenous Perspectives to the International Arena: An Indigenous Women's Conference;
• Provided strategic, technical, and logistical assistance for Indigenous women;
• Facilitated the participation of youth from the Latin America Network of Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights and supported their work for the inclusion of the rights of children and youth, sexual rights and reproductive rights in Beijing+10 discussions and agreements.

See MADRE's Article Beyond Beijing: Some Priorities for the Global Women's Movement