On Accelerating Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action

Delivered by Arenzungla Jamir of Sisterhood Network, India
18 March 2025

 

Despite decades of advocacy and significant efforts, the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action remains unacceptably slow. If we are to truly translate commitments into real change, we must recognise that it does not happen solely in New York. Meaningful and transformative progress takes place at the regional and national level where policies are enacted and women’s lives directly impacted. 

CSW must bridge the gap of global decisions and local realities by strengthening regional and national consultation processes. These must not only be spaces for dialogue but mechanisms for accountability and action. 

The Women’s Rights Caucus, a coalition of over 800 feminist organisations – including movements from the Global South – have engaged members on how CSW must evolve. CSW must move beyond high-level declarations and become a real mechanism for accountability, rooted in meaningful civil society participation and feminist leadership, capable of responding to global crises with urgency and ambition. 

    • We must have stronger accountability mechanisms to assess commitments made at CSW. Member States must publicly and regularly report on progress, detailing national policies, legislation, and budgetary action. A structured reporting process, similar to the VNR or UPR, must be established to monitor long-term country-level implementation. Member States must demonstrate meaningful civil society engagement, ensuring independent monitoring through shadow reporting and other participatory mechanisms to uphold transparency and accountability. 
  • We must decentralise CSW engagement, and institutionalise and resource regional and national consultations as part of its formal structure. Conduct annual consultation processes that are accessible, transparent, inclusive and meaningfully engage grassroots and feminist movements. Global North Member States need to commit to the resourcing for meaningful Global South participation.
  • The Agreed Conclusions must remain as a key normative tool for women’s human rights and gender equality. However, they must be clear, measurable, ambitious, and action-oriented – not a battleground for regressive negotiations. They must reflect the lived realities of women and girls in all their diversity and respond to the urgent crises shaping their lives. 
  • CSW thematic priorities must be set through a collaborative and transparent process, reflecting current and emerging global challenges. These themes must be developed with the meaningful participation of civil society and feminist movements and address the intersections of women and girls’ lived realities and experiences.

Most critically, in order for CSW to strengthen and implement its mandate, it must address the structural causes of inequality, colonial legacies and historical injustices that continue to undermine women’s human rights and Development Justice. CSW must move beyond rhetoric and take bold steps toward real implementation.

Thank you, Chair.