The United Nations has held several conferences focused on advancing women's rights and empowerment. The first was in Mexico City in 1975 where goals of gender equality, integrating women into development, and increasing women's contributions to peace were adopted. Subsequent conferences in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985 reviewed progress and adopted further strategies and plans of action. The Beijing Conference in 1995 was the largest that developed a Platform for Action to tackle critical issues like poverty, education, health, and violence against women over the following years. These conferences have helped bring international attention to gender issues and promote women's rights globally.
The United Nations has held several conferences focused on advancing women's rights and empowerment. The first was in Mexico City in 1975 where goals of gender equality, integrating women into development, and increasing women's contributions to peace were adopted. Subsequent conferences in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985 reviewed progress and adopted further strategies and plans of action. The Beijing Conference in 1995 was the largest that developed a Platform for Action to tackle critical issues like poverty, education, health, and violence against women over the following years. These conferences have helped bring international attention to gender issues and promote women's rights globally.
The United Nations has held several conferences focused on advancing women's rights and empowerment. The first was in Mexico City in 1975 where goals of gender equality, integrating women into development, and increasing women's contributions to peace were adopted. Subsequent conferences in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985 reviewed progress and adopted further strategies and plans of action. The Beijing Conference in 1995 was the largest that developed a Platform for Action to tackle critical issues like poverty, education, health, and violence against women over the following years. These conferences have helped bring international attention to gender issues and promote women's rights globally.
The United Nations has held several conferences focused on advancing women's rights and empowerment. The first was in Mexico City in 1975 where goals of gender equality, integrating women into development, and increasing women's contributions to peace were adopted. Subsequent conferences in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985 reviewed progress and adopted further strategies and plans of action. The Beijing Conference in 1995 was the largest that developed a Platform for Action to tackle critical issues like poverty, education, health, and violence against women over the following years. These conferences have helped bring international attention to gender issues and promote women's rights globally.
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United nation
Conference on women MEXICO CITY: A GLOBAL DIALOGUE IS OPENED
• The first world conference held in Mexico City -
1975 • To remind the international community that discrimination against women continued to be a persistent problem in much of the world, • To focus international attention on the need to develop future oriented goals, effective strategies and plans of action for the advancement of women. Significance • The General Assembly identified three key objectives: Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination; The integration and full participation of women in development; An increased contribution by women in the strengthening of world peace. Significance • The Conference responded by adopting the First World Plan of Action for the next ten years in pursuit of the three key objectives, • The Plan of Action set minimum targets, to be met by 1980, • The Conference called upon governments to formulate national strategies and identify targets and priorities in their effort to promote the equal participation of women. • By the end of the United Nations Decade for Women, 127 Member States responded by establishing some form of national machinery, institutions dealing with the promotion of policy, research and programmes aimed at women's advancement and participation in development. Significance • The Mexico City Conference led to the establishment of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women and the United Nations Development Fund for Women to provide the institutional framework for research, training and operational activities in the area of women and development. • An important facet of the meeting in Mexico City was that women themselves played an instrumental role in shaping the discussion. • Of the 133 Member State delegations gathered there, 113 were headed by women. Significance • Sharp differences emerged among the women gathered at the Forum, reflecting the political and economic realities of the times. • Women from the countries of the Eastern Block, for instance, were most interested in issues of peace, while women from the West emphasized equality and those from the developing world placed priority on development. • Nevertheless, the Forum played an important role in bringing together women and men from different cultures and backgrounds to share information and opinions and to set in motion a process that would help unite the women's movement, COPENHAGEN - 1980 • 145 Member States met to review and appraise the 1975 World Plan of Action. • Governments and the international community had made strides toward achieving the targets set out in Mexico City five years earlier. • An important milestone - the adoption by the General Assembly in December 1979 of the Convention on the (CEDAW), one of the most powerful instruments for women's equality. • The Convention, which has been termed "the bill of rights for women", binds 165 States to report within one year of ratification, and subsequently every four years, on the steps they have taken to remove obstacles they face in implementing the Convention. Significance • An Optional Protocol to the Convention (enabling women victims of sex discrimination to submit complaints to an international treaty body) was opened for signature on Human Rights Day, 10 December 1999. • Upon its entry into force, it will put the Convention on an equal footing with other international human rights instruments having individual complaints procedures. • Despite the progress made, the Copenhagen Conference recognized that signs of disparity were beginning to emerge between rights secured and women's ability to exercise these rights. • To address this concern, the Conference pinpointed three areas to be addressed: • Equal access to education, • Employment opportunities • And adequate health care services. Significance • The Conference came to a close with the adoption of a Programme of Action, albeit not by consensus, which cited a variety of factors for the discrepancy between legal rights and women's ability to exercise these rights, including: Lack of sufficient involvement of men in improving women's role in society; Insufficient political will; Lack of recognition of the value of women's contributions to society; Lack of attention to the particular needs of women in planning; A shortage of women in decision-making positions; Insufficient services to support the role of women in national life, such as co-operatives, day-care centres and credit facilities; Overall lack of necessary financial resources; Lack of awareness among women about the opportunities available to them. Recommendations • To address these concerns, the Copenhagen Programme of Action called for stronger national measures to: • Ensure women's ownership and control of property, • Improvements in women's rights to inheritance, • Child custody and • Loss of nationality. • Delegates at the Conference also urged an end to stereotyped attitudes towards women. Nairobi • July, 1985 • Nairobi University Campus (Kenya) • 14,000 -16,000 women from 150 countries attended the unofficial Forum ’85. • 2000 Delegates, and several hundred NGO representatives attended the official conference. Significance • “A world conference of women in the real sense of the definition, a gathering of women from all over the world without equal in the past.” • The critical review and appraisal of progress achieved and obstacles encountered in attaining the goals and objectives of the UN Decade for Women. • The adoption of the Forward-Looking Strategies of implementation for the advancement of women for the period up to the year 2000. • Largest and most influential conference of its kind at the time. • Opened the doors for future conferences to take place. • Created an atmosphere of support and encouragement in which women were able to share and learn from each other. Significance • Official title: • Abolish Illiteracy • Female life expectancy should be Forward-Looking 65 years old globally Strategies for the • Women should have the Advancement of Women opportunity to be self-sufficient • Laws of equality to ensure a truly • Designed for the period equitable socio-economic between 1985 and 2000 framework • Launch a public campaign to • Equality abolish discrimination • Development • Governments should have national women’s policies to • Peace abolish all obstacles women face • UN should hold at least 1 WWC between 1985 and 2000 Beijing Conference - LEGACY OF SUCCESS
• The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
• NGO Forum • September 1995, Beijing • 189 countries • 36,000 + 8,000 women Beijing Conference: Objectives • Review and appraise the advancement of women since Nairobi, 1985 • Mobilize women and men on both the policy-making and grass-root levels to achieve the Nairobi objectives • Platform for Action • Determine the priority actions 1996-2001 The Platform for Action • Created at the Beijing Conference • Identifies 12 “critical areas of concern” considered to represent the main obstacles to women’s advancement • Defines strategic objectives and spells out actions to be taken over the next 5 years by governments, the international community, NGOs, and the private sector Platform for Action Issues Addressed • Poverty • Decision-Making • Education & Training • Institutional • Health Mechanisms • Violence • Human Rights • Armed Conflict • Media • Economy • Environment • The Girl-Child THANKS