Generation Equality Forum: A blueprint for gender equality

“Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights” – a key refrain from the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. This was a galvanizing moment for the women’s rights and feminist movement globally, putting forward a bold vision for the realization of all women and girls’ rights. But this vision has yet to translate into reality, and in the wake of COVID-19, many advances that had been made have now been reversed. It is against this backdrop that the Generation Equality Forum (GEF) took place this year, kicking off in Mexico in March and wrapping up in Paris in June.

Marking 25 years since the Beijing conference, the GEF (virtually) brought together nearly 50,000 people from government, civil society, youth and women’s rights organizations, businesses and philanthropy. Co-hosted by UN Women and the governments of Mexico and France and led by six Action Coalitions, the GEF provides a roadmap for achieving gender equality globally over the next five years.