Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+30 Review

In 2025, the global community will mark the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and the final five years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.

All States were called upon to undertake comprehensive national-level reviews of the progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly held in 2000. The reviews were to be inclusive and mobilize all branches and levels of government, civil society organizations, the private sector, the entities of the United Nations system, regional and international organizations, academia, the media, and other stakeholders. This approach ensured an inclusive, participatory, transparent, and thorough review process at the national and sub-national levels, based on evidence. The process also produced tangible lessons and solutions, which were followed by concrete action and collaboration towards the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the SDGs.

The Beijing+30 Global Review

This 30th anniversary is the opportunity to strengthen gender-responsive action and implementation of the 2030 Agenda and other global commitments, such as including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979), the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (1994), the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2000), the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (2002), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006); the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (2015); the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015), and regional commitments to promote gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights, such as and the Jakarta Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2023–2032 (2022), among others. This anniversary should be used as the occasion to engage more with the generation of gender equality advocates and to bring those who remain on the sidelines into the centre of a whole-of-government, whole-of-society effort. By joining forces, governments together with society have the capacity to overcome and eradicate the root causes of gender inequality and chart a path forward for genuine, substantive equality, with equal rights and equal opportunities for women and girls.

The sixty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 to 21 March 2025. The main focus of the sixty-ninth session will be on the review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) and the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly. The review will include an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the BPfA 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.

ECOSOC Resolution E/RES/2022/5 calls upon member States to undertake comprehensive national-level reviews of the progress made and challenges encountered. The regional commissions of the United Nations have been invited to undertake regional reviews and convene regional intergovernmental meetings. These will feed into the sixty-ninth session of the Commission.

Beijing+30 Regional Review Process

In accordance with ECOSOC Resolution E/RES/2022/5, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission (ESCAP) led the Asia-Pacific regional intergovernmental review of the BPfA, in close collaboration with the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and supported by the rest of the United Nations systems under the umbrella of the Asia-Pacific Issue-Based Coalition on Promoting Human Rights, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.

The regional review aimed to assess current and emerging challenges that affected the implementation of the BPfA 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 in the Asia-Pacific region. It also aimed to strengthen the knowledge base on progress and gaps in realizing the rights of women and girls in the region. The review sought to build regional consensus on actions needed to accelerate the implementation of commitments made in the BPfA. The Beijing+30 regional review built upon the regional review conducted by ESCAP and UN Women for Beijing +25 and the resulting Asia-Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.

The Beijing +30 regional review will consist of three main tracks: analytical, consultative, and intergovernmental.

ESCAP organized 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 was 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 acted 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 were:

• 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 brought 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.