Women’s Rights are Human Rights, then and now: “The approval of the Platform was not enough; it was necessary to monitor its implementation.”

^{Photo: Courtesy of Teresa Valdés}

Teresa Valdés’s journey to Beijing in 1995 was deeply personal and political. “I traveled to Beijing motivated by my involvement in the women’s movement and, as a sociologist, by my contribution to diagnosing the situation of women in Latin America,” she recalls. Her work at FLACSO, where she led the “Latin American Women in Figures” project across 19 countries, provided the first comprehensive quantitative diagnosis of women’s status in the region.

^{Photo: Courtesy of Teresa Valdés}

“I decided to attend the Beijing Conference to present the comparative volume of Latin American Women in Figures, participate in the Civil Society Forum in Huairou, and attend the official Conference as an observer and FLACSO researcher,” she explains. “Feminists aimed to influence the Conference’s outcomes, and I was part of that movement.”

The power of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action

Valdés describes the Beijing Declaration as a watershed moment: “Although it was the Fourth World Conference, it meant sealing a worldwide agreement, of all the governments present, with equality and women’s rights, but with a comprehensive view, with mechanisms and strategies to advance them.”

She highlights two strategic breakthroughs: the creation of national mechanisms for women’s advancement and the mainstreaming of gender equality in public policy. “In Chile, there was already the National Women’s Service, now the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity,” she notes. “All the countries created these national mechanisms for the advancement of women.”

On gender mainstreaming, she adds: “This strategy consists of considering the consequences that any action—legislation, policies, and programs—has for men and women. The concerns and experiences of both women and men must be considered as an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all policies and programs.”

From words to action

Despite its visionary scope, Valdés is clear-eyed about the Declaration’s limitations. “It is a political commitment made by governments to society, but it has an important limitation: its compliance is not mandatory,” she says. “It does not have the status of a convention or treaty that legally obliges States to comply with it.”

This made the role of civil society crucial. “We, the women’s organizations, took it upon ourselves to disseminate the platform and generate a process of appropriation of the Declaration and the Platform for Action to transform them into instruments of political action,” she explains. “It was also necessary to monitor its implementation.”

One such initiative was the Commitment Fulfilled Index (ICC), developed in Chile and replicated in 18 countries. “It was a tool to show progress and setbacks in terms of gender equity,” Valdés says, “and it was presented in a comparative version at the regional level on the occasion of the UN Assembly for the 10th anniversary of Beijing.”

Areas of progress: from violence to representation

Valdés sees notable progress in several areas. “The greatest progress is undoubtedly related to the rejection of discrimination and gender violence, a cultural advance in which equality has gained strength,” she says. “Progress has been made in the legal protection of women and girls against violence, and policies and programs for prevention and care of victims have been strengthened.”

She also points to gains in political participation: “Significant progress has been made in terms of legislation and the formulation of public policies for the participation of women in the exercise of power and decision-making: quota laws, participation in the branches of government, in political parties, among others.”

In the economic sphere, she notes: “Efforts related to labor participation stand out, which were strongly impacted by the pandemic, with a severe setback.” She adds that “the installation of policies and programs that seek to attenuate the sexual division of labor by assuming care as a public responsibility” is a promising development.

Education and reproductive rights have also seen improvements. “There has been progress in reducing teenage pregnancies, in access to contraception, and in the decriminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy in some countries,” she says.

Persistent inequalities and an urgent call to action

Still, Valdés warns of persistent inequalities. “Poverty continues to affect women and female-headed households more, with difficult access to the labor market, less social protection, and wage gaps that increase among the most educated,” she says. “That is, economic poverty and time poverty.”

She also highlights the uneven distribution of progress: “Progress tends to be concentrated in specific social sectors of women. This means that situations of inequality and discrimination are greater among young and older women, women of African descent and indigenous women, rural women, women with disabilities, and women deprived of liberty.”

The rise of conservative governments has reversed some gains. “It has meant the closure of institutional mechanisms for women, of programs for the prevention of and attention to gender violence, the persecution of women’s human rights and environmental defenders, and the regression in sexual and reproductive rights,” she warns.

Valdés also draws attention to present challenges: “the greatest challenge we face these days is visualizing the impact the transformations the world is undergoing, economically and politically, with wars, the crisis of democracy and political parties, the weakening of multilateral agreements and bodies, and global warming, may have on women’s rights and the elimination of discrimination, as well as technological advances and artificial intelligence,” she says. “In the face of all this, in addition to visualizing and anticipating the possible impacts, political participation and the safeguarding of democracy are a priority. When democracy is lost, women and girls are the ones who lose the most.”

^{Photo: Courtesy of Teresa Valdés}

Despite the setbacks, Valdés remains hopeful. “It should come as no surprise that the Beijing Declaration continues to set the horizon and act as a beacon,” she says. “It constitutes a guideline to periodically contrast, through research and statistics, the declarations and commitments with the reality of women’s rights in our countries.”

She concludes with a call to action: “The architecture and strategies that our democracies have adopted for gender equality have in the Declaration a permanent call for attention.”