30 years after Beijing, progress on women’s rights and equality is under threat
Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
30 years ago, 189 governments from across the world signed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which became the most comprehensive and visionary agenda ever for gender equality and the human rights of all women and girls.
Marking Beijing’s 30th anniversary and in the run up to Ireland’s examination by the CEDAW committee in June 2025, the National Women’s Council (NWC) and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) today (18th March) held a timely discussion to assess Ireland’s state of play when it comes to women’s rights and equality.
Speakers at the event Defending Women’s Rights in a Changing World: 30 Years Since Beijing included: Orla O’Connor, Director, National Women’s Council; Liam Herrick, Chief Commissioner, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission; Dr Aoife Price, Interdisciplinary Scholar and Disabled Feminist; Patricia Munatsi, Human Rights Lawyer; Andrée Murphy, Deputy Director, Relatives for Justice and Helena Power, Irish Traveller Movement. The event was chaired by journalist, Aoife Grace Moore.
Over the last 30 years, significant progress has been made for women’s rights and equality in Ireland. In recent times, these included important changes to violence against women legislation, an increase in women’s representation in Dáil Eireann, the roll out of free contraception and increased investment into reducing the costs of childcare.
However, the pace of change has been much too slow. Women continue to experience record levels of domestic and sexual violence, with 52% of women experiencing sexual violence during their lifetime. Women remain underrepresented in politics and still are responsible for the majority of care work with significant impact on their income. Nearly half of lone parent households, mostly women, are experiencing enforced deprivation.
In addition, this year’s Beijing anniversary takes place against a backdrop of severe challenges for women’s rights; an evolving political climate, a growing climate emergency, the rise of far-right movements and increasing violence and hate and ongoing systemic discrimination and inequality.
Orla O’Connor, Director of the National Women’s Council said,
“This is a critical time internationally and in Ireland for protecting and advancing women’s rights and equality. Over the last 30 years, we have seen significant gains for women in Ireland and we now need political leadership to keep this momentum going as we cannot take progress on women’s rights for granted.
As we mark the 30th anniversary of Beijing, the Government should demonstrate their commitment to the full realisation of women’s rights and outline clear actions to achieve this in its forthcoming new National Strategy for Women and Girls. These should include the roll out of a public system of childcare, decisive measures to end violence against women, including online violence, guaranteeing women’s participation in all aspects of life and clear action to tackle poverty and ensure women’s economic equality.”
Liam Herrick, Chief Commissioner, IHREC, said.
“Despite some progress in recent years, commitment to gender equality in Ireland needs to be much stronger. This is particularly obvious in the political arena, where women have such low representation, and within the home, where women carry the major burden of care and work.
Distressingly, reports of gender-based violence against women and girls, in all current manifestations, are on the rise in Ireland. The Beijing Convention states clearly that violence against women and girls is an issue of gender and that it is the responsibility of the State to build a society free from all types of violence against women.
The Declaration recognised that gender equality is essential to a functioning democracy that upholds the rule of law and is central to human rights values. It is abundantly clear that we need decisive, bold leadership in all of these areas if we are to reduce or eliminate gender inequality in all its forms.”
Dr Aoife Price, Interdisciplinary Scholar and Disabled Feminist said,
“Beijing was a watershed moment particularly in relation to disabled women making their presence and stance known within the women's movement. It was one of the first developments that saw disabled women join with their nondisabled sisters globally to work together in creating a document that progressed rights for all. Although this development was significant disabled women continue to have to fight for the most basic of human rights particularly at the intersection of disability and gender. These issues are as pressing today at a national and international level as they were in 1995.”
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