African Woman and Child Feature Service

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The Beijing Platform – the most comprehensive global policy framework to achieve the goals of gender equality, development and peace – called for action on twelve key issues:

• Poverty
• education and training
• health
• violence against women
• armed conflict
• economy | power and decision-making
• institutional mechanisms
• human rights
• media
• environment
• girls

From 1-12 March 2010, government officials and representatives of civil society, the media and the private sector will meet at UN Headquarters in New York during the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, to assess what has been achieved since the Beijing Conference, share experiences and good practices and discuss priority actions to deal with persistent obstacles and new challenges.

Since the Beijing Conference, progress has been made in a number of areas, most significantly in education. While gender-sensitive legislation and policies have addressed inequalities and discrimination against women, overall progress remains uneven. Disparities exist between regions and within countries. Global averages also hide differences among women based on location, economic status, ethnicity, age, disability and other factors.