Reporting for Womankind Worldwide, Amelia Hopkins and Abigail Hunt assess in this article the progress that has been made since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) twenty years ago, and reflect on a lacklustre Political Declaration adopted at the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59).
The article opens by reminding us of how crucial the adoption of the BPfA was in recognising both women’s rights and the need for transformative, concerted action, and how it has acted as a blueprint for advancing women’s rights ever since. However, the authors lament the slow pace of change, with violations of women’s and girl’s rights remaining prevalent around the world, and women largely shut-out of peacebuilding processes.
The authors note that the twenty year BPfA review culminating in CSW59 is a crucial moment for national and global reflection, and so it is disappointing that the Political Declaration adopted is an inadequate response to the findings of the global review. Womankind endorse the view that the declaration represents a bland reaffirmation of existing commitments that fails to match the ambition of the BPfA. Highlighted examples of this inadequacies are the lack of time-bound, measurable commitments or mechanisms to hold actors to account, and the lack of a framework that allows for proper assessment and evaluation.
The article criticises the arguments over language, and the removal of strong references to the crucial role of feminist and women’s rights organisations. A silver lining is identified in the repeated affirmation to fully implement the BPfA, but this is deemed to fail to make up for avoiding new commitments that are vital to protect the rights of women and girl’s around the world.