BEIJING+25: 25 Years After the Global Platform for Action on Gender Equality

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) of 1995. This extensive and historic document was drafted during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. This conference, historically marked as the venue at which Hillary Clinton famously announced to the delegates, “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all,” remains one of the core moments of global gender equality initiatives.

Its original platform was and remains a public call to action on critical elements in providing gender equality around the globe, in both public and private spheres. This document provides LGBTIQ and gender equality activists an overview of the original Beijing Platform for Action and how it continues to be used 25 years after it was created. The BPfA continues to serve a vital role in the push for gender equality. Beyond its groundbreaking impact on the international community when it was implemented, the BPfA remains the core platform by which we can quantify gender equality on an international scale. The United Nations (UN) continues to advocate that future global agendas must be both “universal” and “anchored” in human rights, including those related to gender equality, making the BPfA continuously relevant to future plans. Expanding upon this, the UN centers its promotion of the “realization of women’s and girls’ human rights” as essential to gaining universal human rights while establishing peace, security, and sustainable development.