Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review

ESCAP will organize the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review, in collaboration with UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific from 19 to 21 November 2024.

The conference is expected to reinvigorate political commitment to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Asia and the Pacific and build regional consensus on priority actions to accelerate the implementation of commitments made in the BPfA. The conference will act as a platform for sharing knowledge and information on progress made, gaps and challenges encountered in realizing gender equality and the rights of women and girls in the region. The outcome will serve as the region’s input to the deliberations at the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2025.

The objectives of the conference are:

• To assess progress to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in Asia and the Pacific over the past five years;
• Review current and emerging challenges, good practices, lessons learned, and priority actions required to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
• Provide a platform for member States and stakeholders to explore policy options and strategies, including innovative approaches and good practices, toward realizing gender equality and the empowerment of women;
• Build regional consensus on priority actions to accelerate the implementation of commitments made in the BPfA
• Consolidate regional inputs to the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women which will focus on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly.

The conference will bring together ministers, senior officials and representatives from relevant ministries, community-based organizations, civil society organizations, youth organizations, academia, the private sector, United Nations entities, independent experts and other relevant stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific region.

For more information, please visit the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review event page.

As part of the Beijing+30 review, member States have been invited to undertake comprehensive national-level reviews that take stock of achievements, identify gaps and setbacks, and outline strategies for addressing those gaps and challenges at the national level. Member States are expected to respond to a survey and submit national reports by 1 June 2024. The national reports will inform the regional reports on Beijing+30 review. Please use the links above to read the national reports and view country profiles.

The analytical track of the regional review process will examine progress, gaps and challenges, and identify good practices towards achievement of the commitments made in the BPfA in the Asia-Pacific region. The analytical review will provide the substantive background to consultations and deliberations at the conference. Specifically, two parliamentary papers will be prepared in advance of the conference. The first parliamentary paper will review the state of gender equality and the empowerment of women in Asia and the Pacific, drawing on official data and statistics, and States Parties’ reports submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Universal Periodic Review under the Human Rights Council, and Voluntary National Reviews under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The second parliamentary paper will be based on the analysis of survey findings collected through the comprehensive national-level reviews.

Furthermore, a regional synthesis report will be prepared to more comprehensively take stock of priority issues, progress, gaps, and challenges, as well as recommendations for priority actions. Along with the national reports, the regional synthesis report will feed into a global synthesis report that UN Women will submit to the sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women to be held in March 2025.

The engagement of and consultation with stakeholders is a vital part of the regional review process and the intergovernmental conference. A steering committee will be established to coordinate the consultation with civil society organizations comprising women’s organizations, academia, and other key stakeholders in the regional review process. Meanwhile, Governments are encouraged to complement the whole-of- government approach for comprehensive national-level reviews with a whole-of-society approach that involves multi-stakeholder participation and contributions.

ESCAP and UN Women will facilitate the participation of key stakeholders in the official agenda of the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review, inter alia, through: (a) participation as expert roundtable panelists, and (b) enabling oral interventions in line with the rules of procedure of the Commission. For the intergovernmental conference, joint statements by CSO stakeholders are encouraged. Stakeholders will also be invited to organize side events, including in collaboration with ESCAP member States, United Nations entities, and others.