Events

This high-level meeting of the General Assembly will focus on the overall theme, ‘Accelerating the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’. As decided by the UNGA in July 2020, this event will take place on 1 October 2020. 

On 22 May 2019, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) agreed to convene a high-level meeting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), which took place in Beijing, China in September 1995. UNGA resolution 73/249 calls for a one-day meeting on the margins of the general debate of the 75th UNGA session, which will convene in September 2020.

By the text, UN Member States recommend that the UNGA President conduct consultations to finalize the organizational arrangements for the meeting. The Permanent Representative of New Zealand, Craig John Hawke, and the Permanent Representative of Qatar, Sheikha Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani, were appointed to conduct consultations on arrangements for the meeting.

In 1995, by the report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, governments adopted a 38-paragraph declaration and the 129-page Beijing Platform for Action. The Platform identifies 12 “critical areas of concern”: poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms, human rights, media, environment, and the girl child.

The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has conducted periodic reviews of the Platform's implementation, in 2000, 2005 and 2010. Its 25-year review and appraisal in March 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contact: UNGA President's Office

Related site: https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ga12146.doc.htm

URL:

http://sdg.iisd.org/events/unga-high-level-meeting-to-celebrate-25th-anniversary-of-beijing-womens-conference/