Beijing+30: Hopes for a Feminist Future

30 years ago, the Beijing Platform for Action(BfPA) came out with monumental commitments towards gender equality. These commitments covered 12 critical areas to ensure we can advance women’s rights as a united global front and effort. The shared vision centralised our focus to attaining gender equality across all social, economic and political spheres in society. 

As we approach to the 30th anniversary during the 69th session of the  Commission of Status of Women to be held between 11-22 March 2025 in New York, it is a crucial moment for reflection, rejuvenation and action. Having different stakeholders from across the globe, leaders, human rights activists, feminist activists, policy makers. This momentum gives us a platform to celebrate the achievements and progress of 30 years, reflect on the pushback and changes that are happening every day that risk the progress, refresh our energies and  chart the collective way forward towards gender equality.  

”As Womankind Worldwide, our vision is to see ‘a world where all women, girls and people of all genders enjoy equal rights and freedoms and live with joy, choice and dignity.’ The commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action guide our efforts and remain our blueprint, with our focus and commitments on advancing women’s economic rights, ending violence against women and girls and advocating for women’s participation in leadership. It is undeniable that in the three decades we have witnessed significant achievements in advancing gender equality.”

Some of these milestones include increase in women’s representation in political leadership from  Presidents to Prime Ministers to various political leadership seats,  across various countries in the world. In ending violence against women and girls (VAWG)we have seen wins and shifts in legal frameworks and structural changes protecting women’s rights, cultural and mental model shifts, institutional systems supporting this process. One notable achievement is the recent adoption of the African Union (AU) Convention on VAWG, a major milestone in the commitment of African states to protect women and girls from violence, alongside cultural and mental model shifts and the strengthening of institutional systems to support these efforts.

In economic rights, there has been a growing recognition of women’s economic contributions and an increase in women taking up leadership positions. As we celebrate these wins, there remains serious drawback that persist and new threats that continue to emerge. It is undeniable that there is a global regression in women’s rights.

Furthermore, the United Nations has faced increasing challenges in upholding commitments to women’s rights and gender equality through the various resolutions and conventions. The continued threats in reduction in funding for women’s rights organisations which barely stands at less than 1 per cent, the heightened right wing global shift in governance further reducing the civic space and with the surge in technology access and its weaponisation through technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Addressing this growing challenge demands urgent innovation in policy and legislation to safeguard individuals’ digital rights and protect them from violence both online and offline 

While recognition of women’s economic contributions has increased, the gender pay gap continues to persist with  disproportionate unpaid care responsibilities. Though in the 30 years, more women now hold political office, many women political leaders continue to face harassment, discrimination, and hindrance to meaningful participation. 

The Beijing+30 platform presents a crucial opportunity to regroup, reflect and re-strategize the approach to the commitment towards gender equality. We should look towards the future we all want to see through making action-based commitments such as: 

• Ensuring we are shifting our funding models and practices to increase the access to more sustainable funding for women’s rights organizations that is flexible and gives room from adaptation to the ever-changing contexts; 

• Growing a stronger inter-generational feminist movement which promotes learning, succession planning, collective healing and care and action; 

• Sustaining and pushing forward our commitments around decolonisation of the development principles and practices and continuing to advocate for local led and local driven interventions for sustainability; 

• Working towards strengthening the structures to support women to have meaningful participation in decision-making at all levels; 

• Strengthening the international approach to combat gender-based violence; 

• Strengthening the implementation of legislation, policies and mechanisms that are supporting the commitments towards gender equality; 

• Having mechanisms that allow us to learn and continue to address emerging challenges such as digital rights and justice;  

The path to gender equality depends on our ability to learn from the past while boldly imagining and working toward a more equitable world.