Beijing Platform for Action

CEDAW: National advocacy ICESCR

2020 marked the 25th year of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), which was adopted by all the member states of the UN at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1994.

Although the scheduled events for the commemoration of Beijing+25 (i.e. CSW64 and the Generation Equality Forums) could not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the process showed the importance and relevance of the BPfA. While it is not an internationally binding document, its articles can be used to advocate for macroeconomic policies to achieve gender equality, due to the adoption of BPfA by all the member states. Below are the related paragraphs of BPfA on macroeconomic policy:

Related to fiscal policy:

The Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) specifies the action to be taken by national governments as follows:

Action by national governments:

Paragraph 58(d). Restructure and target the allocation of public expenditures to promote women’s economic opportunities and equal access to productive resources and to address the basic social, educational and health needs of women, particularly those living in poverty.

Paragraph 346. Governments should make efforts to systematically review how women benefit from public sector expenditures; adjust budgets to ensure equality of access to public sector expenditures, both for enhancing productive capacity and for meeting social needs.

Paragraph 165(f). Conduct reviews of national income and inheritance tax and social security systems to eliminate any existing bias against women.

Paragraph 165(i). Facilitate, at appropriate levels, more open and transparent budget processes.

Related to gender and trade policies:

The Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) specifies the following:

Strategic Objective F.1: Promote women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment and appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources.

Actions to be taken by governments:

Paragraph 165(k). Seek to ensure that national policies related to international and regional trade agreements do not adversely impact women’s new and traditional economic activities.

Strategic Objective F.4: Strengthen women’s economic capacity and commercial networks.

Actions to be taken by governments:

Paragraph 175(b). Integrate a gender perspective into all economic restructuring and structural adjustment policies and design programmes for women who are affected by economic restructuring, including structural adjustment programmes, and for women who work in the informal sector.¹

CEDAW: National advocacy ICESCR

Footnotes

1
Çağatay, Nilüfer & Ertürk, Korkut. (2004). Gender and Globalization: A Macroeconomic Perspective.