UN World Conference on Women

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The UN World Conference on Women is an event on the subject of " women " which the United Nations (UN) should in principle hold every five years. The first World Conference on Women took place in Istanbul in 1935 under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk , the first UN World Conference on Women in the first International Year of Women in 1975 in Mexico City .

Mexico City, 1975

A UN World Conference on Women took place in Mexico City for the first time in the International Year of Women. Delegates from 133 countries will discuss “ Equality , Development and Peace”. A "world action plan" was adopted with the aim of improving the position of women worldwide. The World Action Plan was adopted by the UN General Assembly and defined the years 1976–1985 as the “UN Decade of Women”.

At the conference, there were fundamental differences of opinion between civil society women's organizations from all over the world: For example, representatives from Latin America and Africa accused feminists from the USA and Western Europe of focusing too much on the topic of abortions . Last but not least, the heterogeneity of the activists' lives became clear; Against the background of the conditions in their home countries, many argued more strongly for a concentration on the issues of development and peace. Latin American representatives denounced the disappearance of people under the military dictatorships , while African women wanted above all peace for their own continent. Nevertheless, the heterogeneous spectrum of opinions within women's rights activists and the realities of the Cold War hardly stood in the way of a general increase in the importance of women's rights on the international stage.

As a result of the conference, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) was founded in 1976 with the aim of improving the situation and standard of living of women in developing countries through concrete investments and through the law. 1979 designed at the conference was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW) adopted in a slightly different form of the General Assembly.

Copenhagen, 1980

The UN Mid-Decade World Conference on Women in Copenhagen , Denmark , was attended by over 1300 delegates from 145 countries to discuss the implementation of the resolutions and action plans adopted in Mexico City. An NGO forum was held parallel to the official conference .

Nairobi, 1985

1400 official delegates from 157 countries took part in the Third UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi ( Kenya ). A paper Forward-Looking Strategies was adopted as an action plan for the implementation of the decisions of Mexico City and Copenhagen by the year 2000.

Beijing, 1995

47,000 women, including 6,000 official delegates from 189 countries, took part in the Fourth UN World Conference on Women from September 4th to 15th, 1995 and the parallel NGO forum in Beijing . The motto of the conference was “Acting for Equality, Development and Peace”. In particular, the culturally and traditionally different understanding of women's rights was discussed heatedly and controversially. The result of the discussions was a list of demands, the so-called platform of action, which was developed with the help of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and approved by consensus by 189 states . In this, the signatory states committed themselves in particular to promoting gender equality in all areas of society (politics, economy and society), protecting women's rights, combating poverty, prosecuting violence against women as a violation of human rights and gender-specific differences in health care and in the education system. In order to monitor the implementation of the Platform for Action, a “Department for the Advancement of Women” was set up at the United Nations.

The final declaration of the World Conference on Women in Beijing and the declaration of the conference in Nairobi ten years earlier are seen as the forerunner of UN Resolution 1325 from 2000 , which is important for women's rights and which is considered a milestone to outlaw sexual violence against women and girls.

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  1. ↑ a b c Rita Schäfer: Resolution of the UN Security Council on women, peace and security (2000). In: Sources on the history of human rights. Published by the Working Group on Human Rights in the 20th Century. September 2016, accessed March 6, 2020.
  2. ^ United Nations (UN): Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, September 4-15, 1995). in UN.org. October 17, 1995, accessed March 6, 2020 (in translation).