Debate: Challenges ahead for women’s rights: more than  years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
Date: WEDNESDAY, 10 FEBRUARY 2021
Speaker: Helena Dalli
Language: EN

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted 25 years ago. It is the most inspiring global blueprint of gender equality and it still guides us today. The Beijing Conference was a fundamental step in the global commitment that we have jointly embraced since. Progress has been made in these years but girls and women still face many hurdles and challenges that remain unaddressed. Across the world, including in some of our own Member States, we see a serious threat for, and backlash on, women’s rights. This backlash manifests itself in various forms and settings, like for instance in the opposition we have seen in the EU to adhere to legal frameworks to combat violence against women. This opposition is sometimes based on the mere fact that the word ‘gender’ is used.  This directly endangers the monitoring of the EU’s commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action, as well as the work the EU does in terms of gender equality. It leads to a situation where no consensus can be found among Member States on Council conclusions that aim to report on the EU’s progress on the Beijing Platform for Action. We should all mobilise our forces to counter this very worrying trend and not let this impede our international commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action. Every year during the meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN General Assembly, we reaffirm the commitments agreed in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the engagement to embrace the new challenges ahead. The United Nations Secretary-General called for a pushback against the pushback. Power remains a crucial element empowering women and girls, calls for equal rights for girls and women as boys and men. We need to make these equal rights a reality for all. This year’s CSW session deals with full and effective participation of women in public and political life. It highlights the importance of women and girls as agents of change and as decision-makers and leaders on all issues and at all levels. This is crucial for adequately translating their needs and skills into policies to achieve gender equality and a more peaceful, secure, just and sustainable world.  To reach this we need to help all enablers that allow for women’s and girls’ meaningful participation in public and political life. We also need to eradicate gender-based violence, including online violence, that risks to silence women, and we started our work on EU-wide legislation addressing this. In fact, last Monday we launched a public consultation on this topic. This is a key priority for us, including as part of the Generation Equality Forum, where the EU is a co-leader on gender-based violence.  In order to tackle gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the Commission adopted two key policy strategies: the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 for our internal action and the EU Gender Action Plan III for our external action. The crisis we are experiencing has amplified their relevance and urgency to advance and push further the Beijing commitments and make a real change in the life of women and girls. The widening of socio-economic inequalities for women in particular, the spike in domestic violence and the digital gender gap are all at the centre of our areas of engagement, both internally and externally.  The EU is committed to lead by example. This is firmly positioned at the core of the EU policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment. We do this by establishing the requirement of a gender-responsive leadership for all EU leaders and managers in the Gender Action Plan III.  Gender mainstreaming is one of the core principles of both the Gender Equality Strategy and the Gender Action Plan III that we presented last year. This is a crucial principle to advance on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. It is central to the philosophy of the 12 Beijing critical areas of concern. It underlines the importance of mainstreaming agenda perspective throughout all the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030 and its key principle not to leave anyone behind. It is also a crucial principle in the implementation of the Women Peace and Security Agenda, aiming for gender equality, peace and security.  We need to advance not in words but in deeds, including through our financial commitments. The EU long-term budget 2021-2027, together with Next Generation EU, with a stimulus package of EUR 1.8 trillion, will ensure financing for the promotion of gender equality. Eighty-five per cent of all our external actions will be gender-responsive. They will promote gender equality and women’s empowerment across sectors of intervention.  I particularly want to congratulate the European Parliament on its successful role in ensuring a gender-sensitive perspective in the EU budget and recovery. Together with the Agenda 2030, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, remains a crucial reference document to advance gender equality and to empower women and girls. The COVID-19 pandemic and the growing backlash against women’s rights highlight the importance of our continued vigilance on gender equality. It is important now more than ever to keep working together to achieve the objectives that we have set.