Friday, 10 October 2025
12:00 Noon (South Africa), 3:30pm (India)
Join us on Friday, 10th October 2025, in SHE & Rights session ahead of the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP 2025) in Bogota, Colombia.
Speakers will update us on the outcomes of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting. The theme of the UNHLM was: “Recommitting to, resourcing and accelerating the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.”
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is the most ambitious global political commitment on women’s rights ever achieved. It affirmed that the rights of women and girls are not separate, secondary, or negotiable – they are human rights. And it has helped to power advances in some critical areas — legal protection, political participation, education, maternal mortality, recognizing the need to tackle violence against women as a global priority, and more. But progress has been slow and uneven, and no nation has achieved full equality for women and girls and gender diverse peoples.
At 80th UN General Assembly this year, there were attempts made by USA to “torpedo” gender equality and human right to health. USA government categorically said at UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health (on 25th September 2025) that it does not recognise “constitutional or international right to abortion.”
However, ECOSOC adoption by consensus to revitalise CSW at UNGA gives us hope. UN High Level Meeting on ending violence against women would be held at CSW70 in 2026. With only 62 months left to #KeepThePromise, progress on SDG-3 and SDG-5 is lagging far behind. Hard-won gains are now under attack. Meanwhile, conflicts and climate disasters are multiplying. The human rights of women and girls are casualties of both. This session also marks 2 years since Gaza genocide began.
Asia Pacific regional multi-stakeholder CSE dialogue: Right after UNGA HLM on Beijing+30, Thailand was the venue of Asia Pacific regional multistakeholder dialogue to explore innovations in teacher education and training to support well-being education, including Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE). It was co-hosted by one of SHE & Rights partners, ARROW, along with UNESCO, UNICEF, UNFPA, and Education International, in collaboration with the SDG 4 Youth and Student Network and YPEER Asia-Pacific Centre.
This SHE & Rights session is together hosted by Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion (CeHDI), International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) 2025, Y-PEER Asia Pacific, Y-PEER Laos, Family Planning News Network (FPNN), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health and Development (APCAT Media) and CNS.
