Beijing conference veterans: Despite setbacks, women’s rights movements must move forward
By Marivir Montebon
New York – Wars and the rise of authoritarianism are the biggest setbacks in women’s rights movements worldwide. This was a shared sentiment by women leaders who led in the drafting of the global agenda for women’s empowerment at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
L-R: Soon-Young Yoon, Patricia Espinosa, Patricia Licuanan, Getrude Mangella, Gail Bindley Taylor (moderator), Charlotte Bunch, Carol Bellamy, and Selma Ashipala-Musavyi at the Harvard Club on March 14, 2025 for the CSW forum “30 years of the Beijing Platform of Action: Looking back, pushing forward.”
Thirty years after the conference and thirty years older, the leaders met again to share insights and memories of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPOA) at a side forum of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) with the theme: "30 years of the Beijing Platform for Action: Looking back, pushing forward."
On March 14, 2025, the Biddle Room of the Harvard Club was filled with young and not-so-young women leaders excited to listen to the panel composed of Patricia Licuanan, Philippines; Charlotte Bunch, USA; Carol Bellamy, USA; Selma Ashipala-Musavyi, Namibia; Patricia Espinosa, Mexico; Gertrude Mongella, Tanzania; and Soon-Young Yoon, USA. Irene Giner-Reichl was unable to attend. Gail Bindley-Taylor was the moderator.
The Beijing veterans said that there have been setbacks in women’s movements because of the lack of political will on the part of government, lack of funds, ongoing wars, and the rise of authoritarianism.
L-R: Soon-Young Yoon, Patricia Espinosa, Patricia Licuanan, and Gertrude Mongella.
This writer with Namibia Trade Minister Selma Ashipala-Musavyi.
Charlotte Bunch, American feminist author and founding director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, said that the setbacks are a result of our movement. “We are facing a very well organized, very serious backlash against the feminist and human rights agenda. We see in the United States with President Trump. In other countries like Hungary. This is not a small movement. I believe we represent what people want. But they have money and very good communications skills. They’re using the UN the way we’re using it 35 years ago. So we have to up our skills and our commitment,” said Bunch.
Soon-Young Yoon, representative of the International Alliance of Women to the UN, recalled that when the final draft was passed, she finally exhaled. “I exhaled. I was finally able to breathe. It was a great moment. The word gender, once obscure, was finally used. Gender equality appeared 300 times in our document. And we have said that women’s rights are human rights.”
With Dr. Patricia Licuanan, then chairperson of the Main Committee of the 4th World Conference of Women in Beijing.
Bunch recalled that her “high moment” was when they brought millions of signed petitions from Vienna containing issues on violence against women, ideological assertions that women’s rights are human rights to the High Commissioner of Human Rights.
“We delivered them in the rain, pieces of paper, as there was no internet. It was a culmination of what we were doing in Vienna, in Rio, in Cairo where reproductive rights were discussed. That was my high moment,” she said.
Namibia Minister of International Relations and Trade Selma Ashipala-Musayvi who was then the rapporteur in Beijing said that the BPOA has to be seen in the context of time. “The Nairobi conference took place in the thick of the cold war. The Beijing conference was an aftermath of the cold war, ushering in new era of hope.”
Tanzanian politician Gertrude Mongella, the first president of the Pan-African Parliament, expressed gratitude to Beijing for holding the 4th world conference. “It was a big job. There were 50,000 women in the conference,” she said.
The Beijing veterans agreed to continue educating young girls, pursuing intergenerational dialogue, and pushing for socio-political leadership.
Carol Bellamy, then executive director for UNICEF during the conference, was emphatic on giving sustained education for empowerment for the youth and to cultivate intergenerational dialogues to sustain women and girl empowerment. “We need to include men in the conversation.”
Bellamy was the first woman to be elected as president of the New York City Council. She also served as New York State senator from 1973-1977.
Mexican parliamentarian Patricia Espinosa offered that moving forward, a new women’s movement must be undertaken, considering new issues on climate change and pandemics, for instance, that impact more adversely on women and girls at the local level.
Espinosa said she was a young diplomat during the Beijing conference. She acknowledged that having a woman president in Mexico was a win for the women’s movement that was inspired by women’s movements worldwide.
Mongella emphasized the need to support programs for women’s health, particularly traditional medicine. “During covid, African women relied on traditional medicine. We could not afford western medicine. Traditional medicine needs to be promoted for holistic health.”
L-R: Charlotte Bunch, Carol Bellamy, and Selma Ashipala-Musayvi.
Asked if she felt that women in general are in a much better condition now since the Beijing conference, Ashipala-Musayvi said that there had been gains in representation of women in government and improved education. “In places where there’s war, it is where women and girls are most disadvantaged and challenged.”
Patricia Licuanan, Filipino social psychologist and main committee chairperson of the 4th World Conference of Women, imparted an encouraging note for non-government organizations to continue with their programs on the ground. “Governments and politicians come and go. They may not like what we are doing. But we must continue our work for women and girls,” she said.
Licuanan is an educator and has served as chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education in the Philippines.
Former US secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a message of felicitation to the forum. She said, “We celebrate our gains now, but tomorrow, we have to go back to work.”
As Licuanan had put it in jest while pointing at the enormous paintings of Harvard graduates, “we are in the room of the patriarchy, talking about how to continue our work.” The audience laughed.
This CSW side event was organized by the Asia Pacific Women's Watch, the Cities of CEDAW History and Futures Project, the Southeast Asia Women's Watch, and the UN Women. #
