This year’s International Women’s Day, for me, brings with it particular significance because 2010 happens to mark the 15^th anniversary of the 4^th World Conference on Women that was held in Beijing in 1995. The Beijing Conference, as it is known, was an unprecedented gathering of one hundred eighty-nine governments and representatives from thousands of NGOs working on women’s issues from around the world. They came together to focus on increasing opportunities for women and on advancing goals of equality, development, and peace. Member states put forth a Platform of Action that outlined strategic objectives to advance the roles of women, which included an objective specific to the “girl child,” in support of reproductive and sexual health and rights. This World Conference followed on the heels of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which put the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women at the center of the development agenda.

Needless to say, at that time, there was this wave of solidarity among women around the world, this significant push for women’s rights in the global policy arena, and a real sense  that we were really finally getting somewhere in the struggle for equity, respect, and the power over our sexuality and reproductive choices. Upon attending the beginning of the 54^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) last week with Advocates’ staff and three members of our International Youth Leadership Council, we witnessed country delegates from around the world taking stalk of progress towards the Beijing Platform for Action. Some countries reported on concrete actions that their governments have taken to advance the rights of women; others gave more generalized statements; many highlighted challenges that remain; and some focused more on health while others on economic opportunity and women in political leadership. 

While delegates reaffirmed their support for the Beijing Platform for Action, there seemed to be a lack of urgency and a concrete sense of what’s next during the proceedings, aside from a push for a consolidated gender entity within the United Nations (which we are fully supportive of provided that it mandates youth representation within its leadership and structure). There was also a gap in terms of inclusion and partnership with young women throughout the proceedings. While a number of countries mentioned girls, few addressed the critical nature of integrating young women leaders and not enough addressed the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young women in the context of Beijing. Sweden provided by far the strongest country statement that we heard supportive of youth inclusion and young women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, in addition to a statement made by UNFPA’s Director, Thoraya Obaid, a steadfast champion of young people, and a journalist who moderated a panel and made valiant efforts to raise the issue of youth and offer her young woman panelist the opportunity to speak out.

This lack of attention to youth issues was even more present during the NGO Forum that preceded the Commission on the Status of Women. While time and time again, women reflected on the glory days of Beijing, the rhetoric often lacked relevance to the present, integration of young women leaders, and inclusion of young men, or even just men in general. How can we advance a women’s rights agenda without including and respecting young people and how can we, as women, work towards a world where we are not denied sexual and reproductive rights and where there is gender equity, mutual respect, and peace, by excluding men?

While there is a tremendous amount of progress in the women’s movement to celebrate and recognize, if we don’t include young women or young men, we are making the challenges that remain all the more difficult to overcome. The challenges are still numerous and formidable: women and especially young women are still viewed as second-class citizens in many parts of the world; women and especially young women endure gender-based violence, traditional, harmful practices, discrimination, and poverty; women and especially young women lack access to sexual and reproductive health education and services, pre- and post-natal and obstetric care; and women, especially young women, are not able to access or finish school and lack employment and livelihood opportunities.

Given these persistent inequities and the lives of women and young women that are at stake, this is no time for the women’s movement to be exclusive. All women of all backgrounds, cultures, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientation and identities, abilities, and age, have a right to be a part of this movement, to take leadership of it, and to advance an agenda that belongs to all of us. My wish for this International Women’s Day and for those yet to come is to honor and celebrate the beauty and power that lies in our diversity and to nurture a genuine solidarity that can propel us towards greater collective action and progress.