The sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women – the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment – is a milestone moment for the rights of women and girls around the world.
This year the global community will mark the 30-year anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most revolutionary plan on gender equality to date. Adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, it set the stage for equal rights for all women.
Women and girls today are closer than ever to equal voices and choices, but the world is still failing far too many – especially those who are marginalized or caught in crises.
Thirty years of action have made motherhood safer, provided greater choices for women about their fertility and sparked almost all countries to pass laws against domestic violence. Yet there is a long road ahead. A pushback against gender equality as well as efforts to roll back sexual and reproductive health and rights contradict long-standing global agreements. Gender discrimination sustains unjust laws and norms, obstructing women from claiming their sexual and reproductive health and rights and living free from violence.
At the annual two-week session, governments, civil society organizations, activists and experts will gather to agree on actions, policies and investment for gender equality – choices that will determine the course of history for all women and girls.
UNFPA and partners will host a series of discussions on the sidelines of the event, bringing together global leaders, advocates and experts to address urgent gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights issues. You can learn more about UNFPA side events below. A full list of side events at the annual session can be found here.
The proceedings of the session will be broadcast on UN WebTV.
