Gender Equality in Asia-Pacific: Reflections on the Beijing+25 Review
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article reviews the 25-year progress made in implementing the ‘Beijing Platform for Action’ and the challenges that remain towards achieving gender equality in the Asia-Pacific region. Adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women, the ‘Beijing Platform for Action’ has been hailed as the most progressive policy blueprint for gender equality and women’s empowerment. In November 2019, over 600 participants from 54 countries, comprising representatives from Governments, international organisations and civil society organisations attended the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review in Bangkok. The delegations reviewed the “achievements, challenges and priority areas for realizing gender equality and women’s empowerment” (UNESCAP, 2019a:1) in Asia-Pacific. For 25 years, since the adoption of the ‘Beijing Platform for Action’, Asia-Pacific has witnessed significant progress in girls’ education and women’s health. Unprecedented progress has been made in and reducing maternal deaths and enhancing women’s representation in national parliaments and local governments in several countries. However, there are some enduring challenges, including women’s economic empowerment and political participation, and violence against women. Whilst women play a pivotal role in protecting the environment and natural resources, they have been underrepresented in environment-related decision making and negotiations. Accordingly, the key actions outlined by the ‘Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review’ cover a wide range of issues, from women’s economic empowerment, political participation, to women’s full and effective participation in environment conservation, climate action and peace building process.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Accepted 2020-10-16
Published 2020-11-29
References
Encyclopædia Britannica (2020). Chipko movement: Indian Environmental Movement. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chipko-movement
Government of Nepal (2019). Submission for the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and Adoption of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/64/national-reviews/nepal.pdf
McKinsey Global Institute (2018). The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Asia Pacific. McKinsey and Company: New York.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, P. (2020). Violence against Women and Girls: The Shadow Pandemic. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/4/statement-ed-phumzile-violence-against-women-during-pandemic
Sharma, A. (2015). Beijing+20: Some Musings. Space and Culture, India, 2(4), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v2i4.127
Shiva, V. and Bandyopadhyay, J. (1986). Chipko: India’s Civilisational Response to the Forest Crisis. INTACH: New Delhi.
Stiglitz, J.E. (2003). The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade. W.W. Norton & Company: New York.
United Nations. (1995). Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. https://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/pdfs/Beijing_Declaration_and_Platform_for_Action.pdf
United Nations (2015). Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A/RES/70/1.https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication
United Nations (2020a). Fourth World Conference on Women (September 1995, Beijing, China). https://www.un.org/en/events/pastevents/women_conf_beijing_1995.shtml
United Nations (2020b). Goal 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all Women and Girls. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
United Nations Statistics Division (2020). Goal 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all Women and girls. https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2017/goal-05/
UNESCAP (2010). Protecting Development Gains: Reducing Disaster Vulnerability and Building Resilience in Asia and the Pacific. The Asia-Pacific Disaster Report, 2010. UNESCAP: Bangkok.
UNESCAP (2017). Gender, the Environment and Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific. https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/publications/SDD-Gender-Environment-report.pdf
UNESCAP (2019a). Review of the Progress and Remaining Challenges in Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific. https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Review_of_progress_%28ENG%29.pdf
UNESCAP (2019b). Pathways to Influence: Promoting the Role of Women’s Transformative Leadership to Achieve the SDGs in Asia and the Pacific. Sales No.E.20.II.F.4.
UNESCAP (2019c). Asia-Pacific Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Beijing+25 Review. ESCAP/MCBR/2019/2/Add.1. https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Beijing%2B25-Declaration-%28ENG%29-20200220.pdf
UNESCAP (2019d). Concept Note: 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review. https://tinyurl.com/yyh2hjvh
UNESCAP (2019e). Population and Development in Asia and the Pacific: Lessons learned from the Midterm Review of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development. UNESCAP.
UNESCAP (2019f). The Disaster Riskscape across Asia-Pacific: Pathways for Resilience, Inclusion and Empowerment. Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019. UNESCAP: Bangkok.
UNESCAP (2020). SDG Gateway Data. https://dataexplorer.unescap.org/
UNFCCC (2015). Paris Agreement. FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev1. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09r01.pdf
UNFCCC (2019). Enhanced Lima work programme on gender and its gender action plan. UNFCCC. Conference of the Parties. https://unfccc.int/topics/gender/workstreams/the-gender-action-plan
UNICEF (2019). Gender Counts (4 Subregional Reports for Asia and the Pacific). https://data.unicef.org/
UN Women (2019). Gender Equality in Asia and the Pacific: 25 Years After The Beijing Declaration. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/11/infographics-gender-equality-in-asia-pacific
WEF (2019). Global Gender Gap Report 2020. World Economic Forum: Geneva.
Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology (2020). Chipko Movement. https://fore.yale.edu/World-Religions/Hinduism/Engaged-Projects/Chipko-Movement