Beijing Declaration (1995): Annex I(19)-(21)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/08/25
19. It is essential to design, implement and monitor, with the full participation of women, effective, efficient and mutually reinforcing gender-sensitive policies and programmes, including development policies and programmes, at all levels that will foster the empowerment and advancement of women;
20. The participation and contribution of all actors of civil society, particularly women’s groups and networks and other non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations, with full respect for their autonomy, in cooperation with Governments, are important to the effective implementation and follow-up of the Platform for Action;
21. The implementation of the Platform for Action requires commitment from Governments and the international community. By making national and international commitments for action, including those made at the Conference, Governments and the international community recognize the need to take priority action for the empowerment and advancement of women.
Beijing Declaration (1995)
Beijing Declaration (1995) Annex I(19)-(21) speak to a large number of considerations about the equality of the sexes and the relevance of women’s organizations.
In Annex I(19), we observe the nature of participation of women within the society with women seen as needing to be empowered and advanced within the society through a variety of mechanisms. One of these is a sensitivity in the design of the participation of women in the society. As with any grouping, there are ways in which to ease and expedite areas of contribution to society – areas previously kept from women and only very, very recently providing some advantage for them, e.g., education.
The next is the implementation of the designed programs with the women of the world in mind as well as the monitoring of the progress of those programs of action. Tied to the design and eventual implementation, if approved, we can see the tracking of the progress. If things happen to work better than before, or better than alternatives, then, obviously, the pathways for women’s participation in society – for full contribution – should be taken into account there.
The purpose is for an “effective, efficient and mutually reinforcing gender-sensitive” set of policies and programmes. In this sense, the design and implementation are dealing with the chronological development from policy to program, to the enactment of in the real world. All levels of the society and every nation bound to the Beijing Declaration should be considering this.
Annex I(20) works from a comprehensive perspective of the ways in which all major members of the society can contribute to it. The means by which women are able to be members, agents, or “actors” within the democratic system. The purpose remains development of the full capacities of women. One of the ways in which this can be done is through the inclusion of women’s groups and women’s networks, and non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations, in the fundamental decision-making framework of the empowerment and advancement of women.
It remains a tall order. However, the restrictions on the livelihoods of women have been a continuous history for thousands of years, not in some general manner because different cultures and periods raised and plummeted the status of women depending on the need of the state or the empire as they did with men; nonetheless, the continuous pattern retains the characteristic of men almost universally with more social privileges and legal rights than women. This can change; it is altering, for better and worse relative to international rights stipulations.
The purpose is to keep women with their autonomy intact and able to contribute to society as they deem fit onward in the expansive track. This all aligns with the Platform for Action (Please Google.). The effective implementation of the Platform for Action comes from the recognition of the contributions of the aforementioned organizations to the full equality of women.
Annex I(21) speaks more to the actual implementation of the Platform of Action with the necessity of the contribution of the governments of the world. Without the governmental assistance for the advancement and empowerment of women, the progress of women can only remain a pipe dream and retain a theoretical existence.
The purpose of the 21st statement is a reminder of the trust in nation-states around the world taking part in the international community’s general consensus on the need to incorporate women more into the levers of power in the society and also the provisions of checks & balances to prevent women from being penalized for wanting both a family and a career. All part and parcel of the empowerment and advancement of women.
–One can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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