Pacific women united to have one voice at Beijing +25 Review

Women from the Pacific are attending the Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting on the Beijing +25 Review at the Holiday Inn, Suva.

A drafting committee has been selected and tasked to put together what really matters for them and be presented at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review, which will take place in November 2019, United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok.

A United Nation’s (UN) report said – “The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 is the most ambitious road map for the empowerment of women and girls everywhere. In 2020, it will be 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action set strategic objectives and actions for the achievement of gender equality in 12 critical areas of concern. The Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting provides a forum for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe ( UNECE ) member States to review progress and identify challenges in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

The Pacific ladies are united just to have one voice at the meeting.

It was interesting to hear a Fijian delegate, Viva Tatawaqa, saying if the Pacific Islands can be a big shark in the fight against Climate Change, Pacific women can also be a big shark at the Bangkok meeting.

In opening the meeting, the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Mereseini Vuniwaqa, urged the participants to acknowledge that the progress since the Beijing Declaration was outstanding, real change had been too slow for most women and girls.

“It has not been deep enough, consistent or comprehensive enough and it is not irreversible.” Ms Vuniwaqa said not one single country in the world had achieved gender equality.

She adds that across the Pacific, men outnumbered women in paid and formal employment while women made up most of the population engaging in vulnerable and informal employment. Women work more, earn less and have fewer choices about their livelihoods and future with less access to resources and information.

Participants were reminded that the Beijing +25 anniversary could not be business as usual, but it should give them a clear direction on where their efforts must and would focus in order to deal, once and for all, with this greatest human rights violation, gender inequality.

The outcome of Pacific Beijing +25 Regional Preparatory Meeting and close collaboration in the months ahead can lead the way to greater commitment, co-ordination and action for women and girls in the Pacific.

The two-day Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting started yesterday and ends today in Geneva. The meeting will address key areas of progress and challenges in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5. The SDG 5 goals are – (i) End poverty in all its forms. (ii) Zero Hunger. (iii) Health. (iv) Education. (v) Gender equality and women’s empowerment. (vi) Water and Sanitation.