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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Soloveni Vitoso<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Public Relations & Communication Officer<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333"><a href="https://www.genderanddevelopment.org/"><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:blue;letter-spacing:.25pt;text-decoration:none">Gender & Development</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#272727;letter-spacing:-.4pt">Beijing + 25 Issue – Call for Contributions!</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><img border="0" width="720" height="504" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image002.png@01D534DB.E56FCFD0" alt="https://www.genderanddevelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Beijing-NGO-Forum-image-1200x840.png"></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">The year 2020 is the 25th anniversary of the<a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/intergovernmental-support/world-conferences-on-women"><b><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">
UN Fourth World Conference on Women</span></b></a> held in Beijing in 1995 – a <a href="http://un2020.org/timeline/timeline-1995-beijing-25/">
<b><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">landmark moment</span></b></a> for women’s rights and gender equality. A quarter of a century later, we’ll publish an issue marking this important milestone. What would a 2020 Beijing + 25 Platform for Action
include? What challenges face new generations of feminists in the struggle for equality and rights, and what lessons can we take from the past 25 years?
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">The
<b><a href="https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/"><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">Beijing Platform for Action</span></a></b>, signed by 189 governments, articulated a commitment to human development centred on women’s advancement
and the realisation of gender equality worldwide. It seemed that the battle had been won, and ‘gender’ was widely accepted as a legitimate focus for governments and global governance and financial institutions.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">In the years since, women’s movements have worked with governments to institutionalise commitments made at Beijing.
The ‘gender mainstreaming’ agenda across public policy included establishing gender equality ministries and ‘national women’s machineries’, raising resources to support women’s rights, and supporting gender quotas in politics. At the UN, regular reviews of
progress since Beijing tracked progress. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">But challenges to implementing the Platform for Action appeared swiftly. The 2000 – 2015
<a href="http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=Indicators/OfficialList.htm">
<b><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">Millennium Development Goals</span></b></a>, with only one target for adult women (addressing maternal mortality), quickly eclipsed implementation of the Platform for Action. And a right-wing backlash, objecting
to the notion that ‘gender’ is a social construct, not a natural phenomenon, gathered momentum.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">Anxieties about the growing influence of this backlash contributed to the UN’s decision not to hold a 20-year
follow-on conference in 2015. Now, in 2020, a <b><a href="https://www.passblue.com/2019/06/10/calling-all-womens-groups-help-shape-the-beijing25-agenda/"><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">host of events aims to review and update the agenda for
gender equality and women’s rights</span></a></b>. These include deliberations at
<a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw64-2020"><b><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">the 2020 UN Commission on the Status of Women in March</span></b></a>, a major civil society conference convened by the UN in Paris in July, and a high-level
review by the UN General Assembly in September. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">However, 2020 won’t see a globally-endorsed agenda for gender equality equivalent to what was produced in Beijing,
in part because of the remarkable spread of opposition to women’s rights, and the resurgent support for traditional families, a binary understanding of gender identity, and support for male authoritarianism in private and public. We think it’s essential to
recognise these factors as important for the future of feminism, and consider the implications of de-linking a global reflection on women’s rights from multilateral decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">We invite feminist activists in research, policy and practice to take stock at this milestone moment. See the
<b><a href="https://www.genderanddevelopment.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Call-for-Contributions-Beijing-4-July-1-1.pdf"><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">Call for Contributions</span></a></b> we’re posting for this issue – where we’ve suggested
some topics we’d love to include, and invite you to suggest others. Consider if you’d like to suggest contributing an article (or suggest an individual or organisation who you think should!).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:15.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333">Guest Editor for this issue is Lina Abou Habib of
<a href="https://crtda.org.lb/"><b><span style="color:blue;text-decoration:none">CRTDA</span></b></a> (Centre for Research and Training on Development – Action), Lebanon. Closing date for ideas to reach us (email:
<a href="mailto:csweetman@oxfam.org.uk">csweetman@oxfam.org.uk</a>) is <b>15th August 2019.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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