Recommitting to the Beijing Platform for Action: 30 Years of Progress and Challenges for Women’s Empowerment

During the upcoming General Assembly’s 80^th session (UNGA 80), a high-level meeting marking the 30^th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women will convene under the theme: “Recommitting to, resourcing and accelerating the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.

The meeting, scheduled for 22 September 2025 in New York, will bring together world leaders, UN officials, civil society, and youth representatives to highlight progress, share best practices, and confront persistent gaps and challenges. It will feature an opening segment with high-level speakers, a day-long plenary for Member State statements, and a closing session, with outcomes feeding into a summary report to guide future action on advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

30 Years Since Beijing

The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China was the final and the most important of the four conferences held between 1975-1995, bringing in over 17,000 participants from government delegations, NGOs, civil service, and media. It built on political agreements that had been reached at the three previous global conferences on women and consolidated five decades of legal advances aimed at securing equality of women and men in both law and practice.

At the conference, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a key global policy document and agenda for women’s empowerment, was adopted unanimously by 189 countries. It outlines strategic objectives and actions on 12 key critical areas of concern:

1. Women and poverty
2. Education and training of women
3. Women and health
4. Violence against women
5. Women and armed conflict
6. Women and the economy
7. Women in power and decision-making
8. Institutional mechanism for the advancement of women
9. Human rights of women
10. Women and the media
11. Women and the environment
12. The girl-child

Looking Ahead

The conferences and the Declaration brought the cause of gender equality to the center of the global agenda and united the international community behind a set of common objectives and a tangible plan of action for the advancement of women. While significant strides have been made in achieving gender equality, challenges and obstacles remain. Globally, women earn about 20% less than men, hold just 27% of parliamentary seats, and in 107 countries no woman has ever served as head of state. Nearly one in three women worldwide continue to experience physical or sexual violence, most often by an intimate partner.

The high-level meeting will focus on reviewing progress, identifying gaps, and making renewed commitments three decades after the adoption of the Declaration. This conversation remains crucial to achieving all aspects of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which place gender equality and women’s empowerment at the heart of social progress.

For more information on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, click here.

For more information on the high-level meeting during the UNGA 80, click here.