The Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing in September 1995.

The Conference adopted a Declaration and a Platform for Action, which identified 12 ‘critical areas of concern’: poverty, access to education; access to healthcare; violence against women; armed conflict; economic inequality; inequality in power and decision-making; promotion of the advancement of women; women’s human rights; media stereotyping of women; the environment; the girl child.

While the Beijing Conference and its outcome documents were regarded as an ambivalent success by some contemporary observers, 25 years later it seems a very progressive moment in the history of women’s rights.

Global politics have changed to the point that it is difficult to imagine that the Declaration or Platform could be negotiated in the same terms today.

To mark the occasion of Beijing +25 and to consider the influence of the conference and outcome documents, the Institute for International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne Law School together with the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Sydney, are co-hosting a conference to consider the advances, and retreats, in the situation of women internationally over the past 25 years.

It will also identify possible avenues for responding to gender inequality and women’s rights now and into the future.

Visit the conference website for more information and to explore the full program.

Photo: General view of the Main Committee of the Fourth World Conference on Women, at its first meeting, held on 5 September 1995 in Beijing. Credit: UN/DPI 051114/Zhang Yan Hu