The 58th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58) in 2014 reached a momentous global consensus on actions needed to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for women and girls. It built a strong foundation for reflecting gender equality, the empowerment of women, and the human rights of women and girls in the post-2015 development agenda, and represented the first goal-by-goal assessment of the MDGs from a gender perspective. This official outcome document from CSW58 lays out in full the text of the Agreed Conclusions.
The introductory section sets out the existing commitments on gender equality, the empowerment of women, and women's and girls’ full enjoyment of human rights. It analyses progress, gaps and challenges in the achievement of all the MDGs for women and girls, as well as factors that hold back progress such as unequal power relations between women and men, poverty, inequalities and disadvantages in access to resources and opportunities, and discriminatory laws and social norms. This section also addresses the impacts of the economic crisis, climate change, and natural disasters on the achievement of the MDGs for women and girls.
Following this introduction, a number of agreed actions are outlined, with the Commission urging governments and other stakeholders to take actions in five key areas:
- Realising women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of all human rights
- Strengthening the enabling environment for gender equality and the empowerment of women
- Maximising investments in gender equality and the empowerment of women
- Strengthening the evidence-base for gender equality and the empowerment of women
- Ensuring women’s participation and leadership at all levels and strengthening accountability
Two concluding paragraphs make essential linkages to the future. The Commission urges States to build on the lessons from the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals as the new post-2015 development agenda is being shaped. Furthermore, it calls for critical remaining challenges to be tackled through a transformative and comprehensive approach, and for a stand-alone goal on gender equality – the empowerment of women and human rights of women and girls – and the integration of gender equality targets and indicators across the future framework. The Commission also urges all States and other stakeholders to undertake comprehensive national and regional level reviews of the progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and to implement commemorative activities for the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women.
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