UN Women MCO Caribbean celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
Date:
The story of Caribbean women is one of remarkable resilience. We stand today on the shoulders of women such as whose courage built our communities long before there were constitutions or ministries to protect their rights. Women who sustained families through impossible conditions of slavery, organized for emancipation, held communities together during colonial rule, and laboriously built the foundations of nationhood. Their stories are the soil from which the Caribbean feminist movement grew.
It is not only about survival, but also about transformation. A generation of activists, among them Andaiye of Guyana and Peggy Antrobus of Grenada whom Barbados also claims, Hazel Brown of Trinidad & Tobago, and many others in the region, organized grassroots networks, produced research, lobbied governments. They forged regional feminist platforms that transformed how states and societies imagined and how they were held accountable for commitments to women’s rights.
The UN Women Head of Office, Ms. Isiuwa Iyahen, acknowledged the significant support provided by donors and development partners to advance commitments to gender equality in the Caribbean, and made a rallying call for governments, civil society, UN partners and communities to close the gap between promise and practice, for women and girls, for families, for economies, and for justice.
Reflecting on the progress made in the Caribbean, there must be renewed commitment to close the remaining gaps, so that the promises of Beijing become the lived reality for every woman and girl in our region.
UN Resident Coordinator Simon Springett Said while there has been progress — it has been too slow, too fragile, and far too unequal. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2025, at the current pace, it will take another 123 years to reach gender parity. The UN Resident Coordinator said, “It’s 30 years after Beijing and we have statistics telling us we have 123 to go – this is not only a statistic it is shocking wake-up call”.
His Excellency, Zheng Bingkai, Ambassador for the People’s Republic of China to Barbados noted that since 1995 development in China has enabled 690 million women to be uplifted from poverty. It is notable that in the very same year that the Beijing Platform for Action was adopted, Luo Fuli was born; she is now the chief scientist of DeepSeek, the newest groundbreaking generative AI model, akin to ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
Ambassador Bingkai also announced that the Government of the People's Republic of China together with UN Women will host the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment to continue the enduring spirit of Beijing+30. This event is intended to amplify the Beijing+30 Action Agenda and give new momentum to accelerate equality for all women and girls.
Ms. Iyahen ended by calling for financed and accountable action by Caribbean Governments to close gender gaps and to achieve the commitments made in Beijing.