Dear friends,
Greetings from Bangkok and Happy New Year!
This year will see increased international activism around women's rights and gender equality: it is the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) and the fifth year since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. At the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March, states will review the implementation of the BPfA and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. This will include 'an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. ' You can find the over 160 national-level and five regional-level reviews on UN Women's website.
Two 'Generation Equality ' forums will be organised, in Mexico City in May and Paris in July . These will be civil society-centred, multi-stakeholder , global gatherings convened by UN Women to 'take stock of progress and set an agenda of concrete action to realize gender equality before 2030. ' The events will culminate at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in September when the UN will officially commemorate the 25th anniversary of BPfA.