Follow-Up to the 4th World Conference on Women and Full Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Outcome of the 23rd Special Session of the General Assembly

A/RES/76/142View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 29bImplementation of the outcome of the 4th World Conference on Women and of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly, published in 2021.

What other versions does this mandate have?

21 versions · 2001–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/186

2025A/RES/80/186Follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General AssemblyLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/182Follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/142Follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/128Follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/147Follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women and full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General AssemblyCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Empowerment Gender Discrimination Gender Equality Gender Mainstreaming Programme Implementation Women's Advancement

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

2 reports of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2023.

2023A/78/216Measures taken and progress achieved in follow-up to and implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly report of the Secretary-General
2023A/78/206Improvement in the status of women in the United Nations System report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

54 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General on the measures taken and progress achieved in follow-up to and implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly and of the report of the Secretary-General on improvement in the status of women in the United Nations system;

Reaffirms the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, also reaffirms the political declaration on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women adopted by the Commission on the Status of Women at its sixty-fourth session, and affirms its commitment to their full, effective and accelerated implementation;

Also reaffirms the primary and essential role of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, as well as the catalytic role of the Commission on the Status of Women, in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, based on the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session, and in promoting and monitoring gender mainstreaming within the United Nations system, and encourages the Commission to contribute to the follow-up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in order to accelerate the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, as well as the enjoyment of all human rights by women and girls;

Calls upon Governments and all other stakeholders to systematically mainstream a gender perspective into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in order to, inter alia, contribute to the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and stresses in this regard the importance of ensuring synergies between the follow-up to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the gender-responsive follow-up to the 2030 Agenda;

Reiterates that the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals;

Recognizes that the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the fulfilment of the obligations of States parties under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are mutually reinforcing in respect of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, and welcomes in this regard the contributions of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to promoting the implementation of the Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session;

Calls upon States parties to comply fully with their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Optional Protocol thereto and to take into consideration the concluding observations as well as the general recommendations of the Committee, urges States parties to consider limiting the extent of any reservations that they lodge to the Convention, to formulate any reservations as precisely and narrowly as possible and to regularly review such reservations with a view to withdrawing them so as to ensure that no reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention, urges all Member States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Convention to consider doing so, and calls upon those Member States that have not yet done so to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the Optional Protocol;

Reaffirms that States have an obligation to exercise due diligence to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women and girls, provide protection to the victims and investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of violence against women and girls, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, calls upon Governments to elaborate and implement laws and strategies to eliminate violence against women and girls, encourages and supports men and boys to take an active part in the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence, encourages increased understanding among men and boys of how violence harms girls, boys, women and men and undermines gender equality, encourages all actors to speak out against any form of violence against women, and in this regard encourages Member States to continue to support the Secretary-General’s ongoing campaign, “UNiTE to End Violence against Women”, its social mobilization and advocacy platform, “Orange the World: End Violence against Women”, and the “HeforShe” campaign of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), as well as to support the Secretary-General’s voluntary compact on preventing and addressing sexual exploitation and abuse;

Reiterates the importance and value of the mandate of UN-Women, and welcomes the Entity’s leadership in providing a strong voice for women and girls at all levels and its efforts to support intergovernmental processes so that they fully contribute to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and the realization of their human rights;

Notes with concern that UN-Women continues to draw on voluntary contributions in order to enable it to carry out its mandate of servicing normative intergovernmental processes, and emphasizes the need for the full implementation of resolution 64/289 in this regard;

Reaffirms the important role of UN-Women in leading, coordinating and promoting accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women;

Notes with appreciation the important and extensive work of UN-Women for more effective and coherent gender mainstreaming across the United Nations system, and calls upon UN-Women to continue to support gender mainstreaming across the United Nations system as an integral part of its work and of its efforts to accelerate action across the United Nations system;

Welcomes the commitment of UN-Women to support Member States in their efforts to develop and strengthen norms, policies and standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as to integrate gender perspectives into sectoral policy and normative frameworks, in line with its mandate, and encourages the Entity to continue to promote the need to mainstream and strengthen a gender perspective in the work of intergovernmental bodies and processes, to raise awareness of the opportunities therein and to provide policy analysis, knowledge, evidence and information in support of intergovernmental deliberations in order to provide technical assistance, at the request of Member States, in strengthening a gender perspective in resolutions and other outcomes;

Recognizes the need to continue to strengthen the capacity of UN-Women to fully implement its normative support function;

Also recognizes the important role of UN-Women in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and the central role that it plays in supporting Member States, in coordinating the United Nations system and in mobilizing civil society, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders, at all levels, in support of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and calls upon UN-Women and the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, to continue to support the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the international, regional, national and local levels, including through systematic gender mainstreaming, the mobilization of resources to deliver results and the monitoring of progress with data and robust accountability systems;

Urges Member States to increase funding for the budget of UN-Women by providing, when legislative and budgetary provisions allow, core, multi-year, predictable, stable and sustainable voluntary contributions, recognizing the importance of adequate funding in enabling UN-Women to implement its strategic plan promptly and effectively, and that the mobilization of financial resources for achieving its goals still remains a challenge;

Also urges Member States and encourages stakeholders, where applicable, to address gaps and challenges, take specific, measurable, time-bound actions and mobilize adequate financial resources for the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, in line with the commitments made in the political declaration on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, including by:

Eliminating all discriminatory laws and ensuring that laws, policies and programmes benefit all women and girls and that they are fully and effectively implemented and systematically evaluated to ensure their effectiveness and that they do not create and reinforce inequalities and marginalization;

Eliminating structural barriers, discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes, and promoting social norms and practices that empower all women and girls and that recognize their contributions and eliminate discrimination and violence against them, including through their balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal in the media;

Strengthening the effectiveness and accountability of institutions at all levels to promote gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, as well as ensuring equal access to justice and public services;

Mainstreaming a gender perspective across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, for the realization of the human rights of all and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Matching commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls with adequate financing through the mobilization of financial resources from all sources;

Strengthening accountability for the implementation of commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

Harnessing the potential of technology and innovation to improve women’s and girls’ lives and to close the development divide and the digital divide, including the gender digital divide, as well as addressing the risks and challenges emerging from the use of technologies;

Closing data and evidence gaps through improved regular collection, analysis and use of gender statistics, including through strengthening national statistical capacities, to strengthen the implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes;

Strengthening international cooperation, including North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation, as well as public-private partnerships, to implement commitments to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Calls upon Governments and the organs, relevant funds and programmes and specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, other international and regional organizations, including financial institutions, and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, to intensify and accelerate action to achieve the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and of the outcome of the twenty-third special session;

Encourages all Member States to make ambitious commitments on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Encourages all actors, including Governments, the United Nations system, other international organizations and civil society, to continue to support the work of the Commission on the Status of Women in fulfilling its central role in the follow-up to and review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session and, as applicable, to carry out the recommendations of the Commission, welcomes in this regard the Commission’s continued sharing of experiences, lessons learned and good practices in overcoming challenges to the full implementation at the national and international levels and the evaluation of progress in the implementation of priority themes, and encourages the intergovernmental bodies of the United Nations system, as appropriate, to incorporate the outcomes of the Commission into their work;

Requests the entities of the United Nations system to systematically and strategically incorporate the outcomes of the Commission on the Status of Women into their work, within their mandates, and, inter alia, to ensure effective support for the efforts of Member States towards the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and in this regard encourages UN-Women to continue to use concrete results-based reporting mechanisms and to ensure coherence, consistency and coordination between the normative and operational aspects of its work;

Encourages States and all stakeholders to strengthen the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into all sectors and in all areas of development;

Reiterates its call upon the United Nations system, including the main organs, their main committees and subsidiary bodies, through forums such as the high-level political forum on sustainable development and functions such as the annual ministerial review and the Development Cooperation Forum of the Economic and Social Council and the funds and programmes and the specialized agencies, to increase efforts to fully mainstream a gender perspective into all issues under their consideration and within their mandates, as well as into all United Nations summits, conferences and special sessions and their follow-up processes;

Calls upon States to ensure that intergovernmental processes consistently address gender perspectives in their preparatory processes and outcomes;

Commits to intensifying efforts to further integrate a gender perspective into the work of the General Assembly, including in plenary and high-level meetings;

Encourages its Main Committees and subsidiary bodies, as well as the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions, particularly in the light of the analysis contained in the report of the Secretary-General and of the cross-cutting nature of gender equality and the empowerment of women, to intensify their efforts to make further progress in the integration of a gender perspective into their work, including, as appropriate, into their resolutions within the respective mandates of the General Assembly and each of its Main Committees and subsidiary bodies and the Economic and Social Council and each of its functional commissions, and invites the Bureaux, as appropriate, to encourage such efforts;

Strongly encourages Governments to continue to support the role and contribution of civil society, in particular non-governmental organizations and women’s organizations, in the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session and in the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda;

Calls upon Governments and the United Nations system to encourage women’s groups and other non-governmental organizations specializing in gender equality and the empowerment of women to participate in intergovernmental processes, including through increased outreach, funding and capacity-building;

Calls upon the intergovernmental bodies of the United Nations system to systematically request the inclusion of a gender perspective in reports of the Secretary-General and other inputs to intergovernmental processes;

Requests that reports of the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council and their subsidiary bodies continue to systematically address gender perspectives through gender-sensitive analysis, the provision of data disaggregated by sex, age and disability and the reflection of the contribution of women and girls as agents of change and of the impact of proposed policies and programmes on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and that conclusions and recommendations for further action address the different situations and needs of women and men and girls and boys in order to facilitate gender-responsive policy development, and in this regard requests the Secretary-General to convey the importance of reflecting a gender perspective to all stakeholders who provide input to his reports;

Encourages Member States, with the support of, as appropriate, United Nations entities, including UN-Women, international and regional organizations and other relevant actors, to prioritize the strengthening of national data collection and monitoring capacities with regard to statistics disaggregated by sex and age, as well as national tracking indicators for gender equality and the empowerment of women, through multisectoral efforts and partnerships;

Calls upon all parts of the United Nations system to continue to play an active role in ensuring the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session through, inter alia, the maintenance of gender specialists in all entities of the United Nations system, as well as by ensuring that all personnel, especially those in the field, receive training and appropriate follow-up, including tools, guidance and support, for accelerated gender mainstreaming, and reaffirms the need to strengthen the capabilities of the United Nations system in the area of gender;

Commends the Secretary-General for his leadership and efforts towards creating an enabling working environment and accelerating progress towards the goal of 50/50 gender balance at all levels throughout the United Nations system, including the goal of reaching parity at the highest levels by 2021 and at all levels throughout the United Nations system by 2028, as set out in his system-wide strategy on gender parity;

Also commends the Secretary-General for encouraging the entities of the United Nations to update and regularly monitor entity-specific implementation plans to achieve and maintain the goal of gender parity, and in this regard encourages UN-Women to continue to regularly report on the implementation of and progress made on gender parity through such plans;

Requests the Secretary-General to further accelerate his efforts to achieve the goal of 50/50 gender balance at all levels throughout the United Nations system, including in the field and in peacekeeping missions, with full respect for the principle of equitable geographical distribution, in conformity with Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, considering, in particular, women from the developing and the least developed countries, countries with economies in transition and unrepresented or largely underrepresented Member States, and to ensure the implementation of measures with clear targets and timelines, including temporary special measures, as well as the strengthening of the implementation of policies and measures related to creating enabling working environments, including for work-life balance, and to prevent and address all forms of discrimination, racism, harassment, including sexual harassment, abuse of authority in the workplace and sexual exploitation and abuse, so as to accelerate progress, and managerial and departmental accountability, inter alia, through leadership compacts and performance appraisal systems, with respect to attaining gender parity within the shortest feasible period;

Requests the entities of the United Nations to closely monitor the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on women personnel and their health and well-being, and share the information with UN-Women for its continued system-wide reporting on the improvement in the status of women;

Also requests the entities of the United Nations to strengthen efforts to prevent, address and eliminate sexual harassment, in full alignment with the work of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination Task Force on Addressing Sexual Harassment within the Organizations of the United Nations System, apply a victim-centred approach to all forms of misconduct, as well as encourage the implementation of accountability mechanisms;

Calls upon the entities of the United Nations system to significantly increase their efforts towards achieving the goal of 50/50 gender balance in all locations, including at the United Nations country team level, through a comprehensive range of actions, inter alia, as outlined in the Secretary-General’s system-wide strategy on gender parity, as well as the recommendations contained in the Enabling Environment Guidelines for the United Nations System and the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines, to continue to collaborate with UN-Women and with the active support of system-wide gender focal points and to provide sufficient financial and human resources for organizational change and for overcoming identified impediments to progress on gender balance, including setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic;

Requests the entities of the United Nations, at both headquarters and non-headquarters levels, to continue to appoint gender focal points to provide support for the advancement of gender parity, led and coordinated by UN-Women;

Strongly encourages Member States to identify and regularly submit more women candidates for appointment to positions in the United Nations system, especially at more senior, decision-making and policymaking levels, including in peacekeeping operations;

Encourages increased efforts by Governments and the United Nations system to enhance accountability for the implementation of commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women at the international, regional, national and local levels, including through improved monitoring and reporting on progress in relation to policies, strategies, resource allocations and programmes and by achieving gender balance;

Reaffirms that Governments bear the primary responsibility for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and that international cooperation has an essential role in assisting developing countries in progressing towards the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;

Encourages the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the United Nations system the findings of his reports in order to strengthen follow-up on these findings and to accelerate the implementation of the present resolution;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide an oral report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh sessions and to report to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session on the improvement in the status of women in the United Nations system and on progress made and obstacles encountered in achieving gender balance, under the item entitled “Advancement of women”;

Also requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session, under the item entitled “Advancement of women”, on the follow-up to and progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome of the twenty-third special session.

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