Beijing Declaration at 30 in focus on International Women´s Day

Mona Sahlin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Equality Affairs of Sweden addresses the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. Photo: UN Photo/Milton Grant

International Women´s Day. Beijing Conference.

The year 2025 is a pivotal moment as it marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This document is considered the most progressive and widely endorsed blueprint for women’s and girls’ rights worldwide.

“On this International Women’s Day, we recognize thirty years of progress and achievement since the landmark United Nations conference in Beijing,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres says in a message on International Women´s day. “This transformed the rights of women – and reaffirmed those rights as human rights. Since then, women and girls have shattered barriers, defied stereotypes, and demanded their rightful place.”

General view of the opening ceremony of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.

Leading role of the UN

Historian Kristín Ástgeirsdóttir, who participated in the Beijing Conference as a representative of the Icelandic parliament, has published an important study on the UN Women´s Conferences 1975-1995. She says the UN took on a leading role with the four Women´s Conferences in Mexico City, Copenhagen, Nairobi and culminating with the Beijing Conference.

The First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, addresses the plenary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, held 4 - 15 September 1995. — The First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, addresses the plenary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, held 4 – 15 September 1995.

“First and foremost, the conference was significant for the adoption of this major Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,” Ms. Ástgeirsdóttir said in an interview with the UNRIC website. “It was very forward-looking and took place in this liberal atmosphere, after the end of the Cold War, which is now fading away.”

Women discuss the issues at the Non-Governmental Organizations Forum held in Huairou, China, as part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China on 4-15 September 1995.

She points out that several landmark UN Conferences were organized at this time. They were the Rio Conference on the Environment (1992), the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993), the International Conference on Population and Development in Ciaro (1994), as well as the Beijing Conference.

Spirit of reform

“At all these conferences, significant forward-looking agreements are made,” said Ástgeirsdóttir. “There was a certain spirit of reform prevailing there.”

Vigdis Finnbogadottir, President of Iceland, addresses opening of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was subsequently strengthened and has done important work. However, Ástgeirsdóttir thinks it is no coincidence that Beijing was the last Women´s conference for the time being. “No one has dared to organize such conferences out of fear that the text would go back.”

See also here, here and here: Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action