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Summary of US and UN Platforms and the draft 1995 Beijing Platform HALF THE WORLD, HALF THE POWER Introduction to the Platform Summary The first United Nations World Conference on Women, held in 1975 in Mexico City, marked the beginning of the International Decade of the Woman. Since then, World Conferences on Women have been held in Copenhagen in 1980, and in Nairobi in 1985, and the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) that took place in Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995. The conferences have grown dramatically in size from 7,000 participants in Mexico City to an expected 36,000 in Beijing -- representing the increased strength of the international women's movement. Each conference produces a Platform for Action that recommends to governments strategies to raise the status of women. Each platform is the result of years of negotiating, lobbying, consulting and consensus-building among government representatives and non-governmental organizations. Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum, organized to coincide with each conference, have provided unprecedented opportunities to influence public policy internationally and to build alliances with women's organizations from arround the world. This latest NGO Forum took place in China, August 30 - September 8, 1995. The Fourth World Conference on Women in particular provided women of all ages and backgrounds with the opportunity to contribute to local, national and international decision making. Building on prior UN World Conferences on Women and a series of regional conferences held in 1994, the current Platform for Action is potentially the most far-reaching international document addressing the status of women world wide. It also reflects the largest amount of NGO participation and input of any Platform for Action, which makes this Platform ever more representative of women's concerns and rights worldwide. As a part of the Feminist Majority Foundation's preparations for the Fourth World Conference on Women, we prepared summaries of all of the past UN Women's Conference Platforms for Action, beginning with the 1975 Women's Conference, in an easy-to-read side-by-side format. Our summary chronicles the development of UN Platforms for Action in the areas of equality, human rights, economic equity, violence against women, education, environment, women's health, and the feminization of power.
Feminist Majority Foundation Recommendations to the Interagency Council
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