20 Yrs On: Experts Discuss Landmark Beijing Platform for Action

Experts in the field of gender and women's studies gathered to attend a non-governmental women's forum recently, to discuss the Beijing Platform for Action, a UN-backed document which was signed in the capital two decades ago.

The "Beijing+20" attendees reviewed the development process of gender studies, the action strategies it has taken and the challenges it has faced over the past 20 years, as well as other related issues.

20 Years of Changes under the Framework of Beijing Platform for Action

Julie Broussard, country program manager of UN Women China, summarized global women's achievements in health, education, law, and girls' empowerment; at the same time, she also pointed out the deficiencies in economic rights, security, and politics.

Broussard said that UN Women, the international community, the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), and other organizations have been striving hand-in-hand for gender equality and women's empowerment all along. The issue calls for efforts at the international level, just as it also needs national, local organizations, and even single families to participate.

Associate Professor Liu Xiaonan, from the Constitutionalism Research Institute at the China's University of Political Science and Law summed up the progress aimed at gender discrimination, especially in terms of employment rights. She said that a series of laws and regulations on gender equality in employment, labor and social security have been enacted since the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) was held in Beijing in 1995 (where the Platform for Action was signed). China has made progress in the protection of women's rights and interests, and also formed a basic system which has been put in place.

Founder of the Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center Beijing, a non-governmental women's organization, Wang Xingjuan, on the one hand, positively summed up the women's work that has been done in China since the conference; on the other hand, she said, the formation of feminist groups has made a great contribution to the spread of gender concepts, as well as research on how to combine gender and China's localization.

Gender expert Cai Yiping believed that China has made advances in advocacy of gender equality and women's rights. But, she also pointed out that the roles of women's and feminist organizations in the promotion of gender equality have not been played completely. She added that the Beijing Platform for Action needs to be taken as a whole, as women's rights cannot be picked apart.
 
Many participants put forward the view that cultural communication has been proved an effective way in advocating women's empowerment and gender equality.

Xie Lihua, former deputy editor-in-chief of China Women's News, now works in the Rural Women Cultural Development Center as president. As a person who went from traditional media to head a non-governmental organization (NGO), she said that with the development of new media, the traditional printed brochures, annual reports and briefings that were found in the past can no longer meet the necessary requirements. She urged others to make good use of media tools as a better way of the spreading the ideas of the NGOs. She also expected to have a special NGO dedicated in helping the vulnerable groups to have a voice on the Internet and assisting other NGOs who are weak in this field.

In recent years, some women's organizations commissioned drama plays and short films to reflect upon women's problems and get the attention of society, which has received some achievements.

Li Zishu is a member of BCome, a drama crew that performed the "Ways of the Vagina" at Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2013. Li said that it is not easy to express women's body and sexual topics through theater. Li also questioned whether it is an effective way to advocate women's rights.

Opportunities and Challenges in Future

Comparing the Beijing Platform for Action with the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) passed in Cairo, Egypt, 1994, women's sex, reproductive health and rights, the ending of violence against women and girls, women's empowerment and the elimination of gender discrimination are common pursuits in both documents, said Wen Hua, an official of the Gender Program of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Wen added that, according to the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the expression of the goal of gender equality and women's empowerment has changed from the verb "promote" into "realize", which indicates that the state members of the UN have reached a consensus in this field.

Professor Du Fangqin, from Tianjin Normal University reviewed women's development in the movements of the past 20 years from a perspective of academic feminism. She said the field has encountered many obstacles in China; moreover, lack of resources and support from the main channels, as well as academic society, have all restricted women's development in these subjects.

Executive-Director of the Female News and Culture Fund Administrative Committee of the China Women's Development Foundation, Lu Xiaofei—who formerly served as editor-in-chief of China Women's News—emphasized that, women workers should set up a consciousness of advocacy. At the same time they should strengthen the relationship between women's organizations and society, especially in grassroots organizations, which all women's organizations need to reflect upon.

At the end of the forum, the participants further discussed gender pluralism, the right to health services and other in-depth topics.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)