Call to Engage in the Asia-Pacific Beijing+25 Regional CSO Forum

Photo: UN Women/Pathumporn Thongking

The 25-year anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) will be celebrated in 2020. The anniversary provides a pivotal moment to review state action and compliance in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). It also provides an opportunity for feminist movements to analyze the political, economic and social economies of the moment and consider ways to advance women’s human rights in an era marked by deepening inequalities within and between countries, of climatic, anthropogenic crisis and of sustained backlash against women’s human rights. The review is also an opportune moment to influence the critical review of the first five years of the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other critical gender-related global and regional commitments.

TThe Beijing+25 review process begins in 2019 and will culminate in a global review at the 64th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2020. The global review will highlight the achievements and barriers to the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). It will also provide an opportunity to look at emerging issues which have served to restrict women’s enjoyment of their rights. The review process has engaged civil society in national review processes and they will also be engaged in both regional and global review processes.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia Pacific will facilitate the regional review process. These organizations are collaborating to ensure that civil society is engaged in the regional review process which will culminate in the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Beijing+25 Review, which will take place between 27 and 29 November 2019.

To ensure that civil society engagement is effective and coordinated in the regional review process, a Beijing+25 Civil Society Steering Committee for Asia and the Pacific was established comprising of ten civil society organizations^[1] following a Call for Applications.

Beijing+25 Regional CSO Forum

UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific will support the “Beijing+25 Regional CSO Forum” organized by the Asia-Pacific Beijing+25 Civil Society Steering Committee.

The Civil Society Steering Committee identified the following objectives for the Beijing+25 Regional CSO Forum:

• To create a space for celebrating the achievements and concerns about areas where regression has been observed- and on manifestations of women’s oppression, old and new;
• To facilitate intergenerational dialogue between the feminists who were in Beijing in 1995, holding the line and drafting sections of the platform, and the new generation of feminists taking on the baton for the next phase of our movements;
• • To strengthen the cross-movement solidarity between the diverse constituencies represented, including movements for sexual and reproductive rights, LBTI rights, indigenous rights, migrant and labour rights, sex workers etc., recognising that our struggle is interconnected, and solidarity is our weapon; and
• To strategize together on what we want to advocate for regionally and globally during the review processes, and then nationally and locally after the commitments made at CSW64 and at the 2020 UN General Assembly.

Selection Criteria for Applicants

The Civil Society Steering Committee is inviting applicants to engage in the CSO Forum, based on the following criteria.

• Participants of the CSO Forum are to be representatives of civil society, including activists and academics.
• The CSO Forum is a feminist space and applicants who are individuals or from organisations committed to and act in accordance with global human rights principles and practice inclusive and progressive feminism will be welcomed. Grassroots women and girls will be prioritized for funding support, particularly those from under-represented thematic constituencies and countries. Efforts will be made to ensure representation from all subregions. The Civil Society Steering Committee will particularly prioritise applicants who are:
• Rural women
• Migrant women
• Indigenous women
• Women with disabilities
• Urban poor women
• Young women
• Older women
• Women and girls in all their diversities, including diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE)
• Women survivors of violence
• Women living with HIV and AIDS
• Women workers from a diversity of sectors
• Women in ICTs
• Women in media
• Women in or affected by conflict situations (including women refugees or internally displaced)
• Women Human Rights Defenders

To apply to attend the CSO Forum and/or the intergovernmental meeting, please complete the Beijing +25 CSO Nomination form and submit it to [ Click to reveal ] no later than Friday 6 September 2019.

Workshop Information

Workshops will take place in parallel on the first two days of the forum. Each workshop will have a 90-minute slot. The goals of the workshops will be:

• To build knowledge and understandings of women’s rights issues that are not well-understood outside of the local, national or regional context;
• To convene spaces for conversations on common experiences;
• To invite participants to strategise together ahead of the intergovernmental meetings on the recommendations to make and collectively support; and
• To make specific recommendations (to be sent to Steering Committee at the end of the workshop) to be consolidated in the joint CSO statement made to all states at the intergovernmental meeting.

To apply for holding a workshop, please complete the Beijing + 25 CSO Forum workshop form and submit it to [ Click to reveal ] no later than Monday 23 September 2019.

Performance and Solidarity Actions

The Steering Committee welcomes ideas and proposals on performances that reflect the region’s diverse cultures, whether it is a joint indigenous welcoming ceremony, a youth-led poetry slam, or songs of resistance in any of the languages of the diverse region which hosts more than half of the world’s population!

We also welcome calls for solidarity actions, in support of campaigns that are on issues that more deeply impact women (such as conflict or impacts of mining), and particularly urgent actions in support of Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs).

To propose a performance or solidarity action, please complete the Beijing + 25 CSO Performance or solidarity action proposal form and submit it to [ Click to reveal ] no later than Monday 23 September 2019.

[1] The ten members of the Beijing+25 Civil Society Steering Committee for Asia and the Pacific are: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD); Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW); Asia Pacific Women’s Watch (APWW); Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN); Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM); Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW); Gramya Resource Centre for Women; International Center for Research on Women (ICRW); International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific); and Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre.