Political declaration on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women

We, ministers and representatives of Governments,

have gathered at the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, to undertake a review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, including current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action  and the realization of women’s and girls’ full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls throughout their life cycle, as well as to ensure the acceleration of the implementation of the Platform for Action and to use opportunities in the post-2015 development agenda for the integration of a gender perspective into economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development; and with a commitment to ensuring mainstreaming a gender perspective into the preparations for and the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to all the major United Nations conferences and summits in the development, economic, social, environmental, humanitarian and related fields so that they effectively contribute to the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

and therefore we: AD REF

1. Reaffirm the Beijing Declaration¹ and Platform for Action², the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly³ and the declarations of the Commission on the Status of Women on the tenth and fifteenth anniversaries of the Fourth World Conference on Women⁴; AD REF

2. Recognize that the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the fulfilment of the obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are mutually reinforcing in achieving gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and the realization of their human rights, and call on states that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or acceding to the Convention and its Optional Protocol; AD REF

3. merged with 3ALT and 4: Welcome the progress made towards the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action through concerted policy action at national, regional and global levels; also welcome the review activities undertaken by Governments in the context of the 20^th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, noting the contributions of all other relevant stakeholders and the review outcomes; and also look forward to the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment on 26 September 2015; AD REF

5. Express concern that progress has been slow and uneven and that major gaps remain, and obstacles, including, inter alia, structural barriers, persist in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action, and recognize that twenty years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, no country has fully achieved equality and empowerment for women and girls, that significant levels of inequality between women and men, girls and boys persist globally, and that many women and girls experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, vulnerability, and marginalization throughout their life cycle; AD REF

7 alt merged with 6 and 7. Recognize that new challenges have emerged and reaffirm our political will and firmly commit to tackle challenges and remaining implementation gaps in all twelve critical areas of concern, which are: women and poverty, education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment, and the girl-child; AD REF

11. Pledge to take further concrete actions to ensure the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly including through strengthened implementation of laws, policies, strategies and programme activities for all women and girls; strengthened and increased support for institutional mechanisms for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at all levels; the transformation of discriminatory norms and gender stereotypes and the promotion of social norms and practices that recognize the positive role and contribution of women and eliminate discrimination against women and girls; significantly increased investment to close resource gaps, including through mobilization of financial resources from all sources, including domestic resource mobilization and allocation and increased priority to gender equality and the empowerment of women in official development assistance, to build on progress achieved and ensure that official development assistance is used effectively to contribute to the implementation of the Platform for Action; strengthened accountability for the implementation of existing commitments; enhanced capacity building, data collection, monitoring and evaluation, and access to and use of information and communication technologies; AD REF

8alt, 9 and 10 merge: Emphasize that the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is essential for achieving the unfinished business of Millennium Development Goals and for tackling critical remaining challenges through a transformative and comprehensive approach in the post-2015 development agenda; including through the sustainable development goal on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, as proposed by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals in its report which shall be the main basis for integrating Sustainable Development Goals into the post-2015 development agenda, while recognizing that other inputs will also be considered, in the intergovernmental negotiation process at the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly, and also through integrating a gender perspective into the post-2015 development agenda; AD REF

11.bis Reaffirm the primary responsibility of the Commission on the Status of Women for the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, and recall the follow-up work done by the Commission in that regard; and also reaffirm its catalytic role in promoting gender equality and empowerment of women based on the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session and in promoting and monitoring gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system; AD REF

12 and 14 merged. Recognize the important role of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and the central role it is playing in supporting Member States, and in coordinating the United Nations system, and mobilizing civil society, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders at all levels in support of the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; and call upon UN-Women and the United Nations system to continue to support the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and its review and appraisal at the international, regional, national and local levels, including through systematic gender mainstreaming, mobilization of resources to deliver results, and monitoring of progress with data and robust accountability systems; AD REF

13. Welcome the contributions made by civil society, including non-governmental organizations, women’s and community-based organizations, to the implementation of the Platform for Action, and pledge to continue supporting at local, national, regional and global levels civil society engaged in the advancement and promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls including by promoting a safe and enabling environment for them; AD REF

6bis ALT Recognize the importance of the full engagement of men and boys for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and commit to take measures to fully engage men and boys in efforts to achieve the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;   AD REF

15 and 15 ALT merged. Commit to engaging all stakeholders for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and call upon them to intensify their efforts in this regard; AD REF

16. ALT: Commit to use all opportunities and processes in 2015 and beyond to accelerate and achieve the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in order to achieve concrete results in each review cycle, and strive for the full realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women by 2030. AD REF