Arab States join historic gathering to reiterate their commitment to women’s empowerment

As the Beijing Platform for Action turns 25, the UN General Assembly hosts a high-level meeting to accelerate implementation efforts for advancing women’s rights

Cairo – The year 2020 marks the 25^th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), which remains the most visionary and comprehensive roadmap for advancing women´s rights globally. This year also marks a five-year milestone towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the reaffirmation of gender equality as a pre-condition to achieving sustainable development for all by 2030.

To mark this significant milestone, global leaders, including 17 government representatives from the Arab States, will gather on October 1^st, within the framework of the 75^th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 75), the largest annual intergovernmental meeting, to present concrete actions and commitments to accelerate the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by 2030, including in support of the role of civil society organizations and youth.

Government representatives including Prime Ministers, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and heads of women’s machineries from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates are expected to join the high-level event. The list of speakers can be found here.

The high-level meeting represents the culmination of a comprehensive national, regional and global review process that started in 2019 and spanned for over a year. In the Arab States, the regional review process culminated in the Arab States High-Level Conference on the Beijing+25 Review hosted in Amman, Jordan, which reviewed the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in the region and adopted the “Arab Declaration on Progress in the Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action after 25 years.”

Under the overall theme of “Accelerating the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”, the High-Level Meeting will feature statements from, among others, the President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Executive Directors of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and of UNFPA, Natalia Kanem, three women’s rights leaders, an eminent high-level champion of gender equality, a representative from civil society and a young woman leader, followed by interventions by Member States.

The high-level meeting will take place within the framework of the Generation Equality campaign and Forum, originally scheduled to be held in Mexico City and in Paris in 2020, and now postponed to next year and adapted to respond to the current context.

Watch the event live via UN Web TV

Join the conversation: Follow @UN_PGA, @UN_Women and @unwomenarabic on Twitter and share your messages using the hashtag #GenerationEquality and #Beijing25.