On March 8, 2015, International Women’s Day will celebrate the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments 20 years ago that sets the agenda for realizing women’s rights.
The Beijing Platform for Action focuses on 12 critical areas of concern, and envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination. The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which opens on March 9 at UN Headquarters, will undertake a review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration at its 20th anniversary.
Among its 12 areas of concern, the Platform of Action underlines all forms of discrimination and violence girls suffer offering concrete actions to end these human rights violations.
Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) believes Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity begins with breaking the cycle of child marriage and early childbirth.
Therefore, in parallel with current intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development framework, we launch a Global Parliamentary Declaration to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) to mobilize our strong network of Parliamentarians to call for a robust target on this issue to be included and remain in the agenda and to ensure the protection and promotion of girls’ human rights. This is not only a moral imperative, but also economically beneficial.
From today until late September 2015, when Member States will gather at a UN Summit to adopt the new development agenda for the next 15 years, PGA’s Gender, Equality and Inclusion (GEI) Program will inform Parliamentarians and galvanize their support for this Global Parliamentary Declaration.
We hope you will find it useful for your work as a Champion for women’s and girls’ human rights.
To read and sign the Global Parliamentary Declaration click here.
For International Women’s Day messages from the UN system click here.
For more information on the GEP Program contact:
Ms. Mónica Adame
Senior Program Officer
E:
T: +1-646-762-7295