25 Years of the Beijing Platform for Action - Report by Social Watch Czech Rep.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women held in 1995 where the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were first adopted embodying the goals and recommended actions for improving women‘s access to their rights in 12 key areas.

The presented monitoring report of the Czech Social Watch Coalition on Gender Equality focuses in four studies on the following areas of the Beijing Platform for Action: women and poverty, violence against women, women and economic inequality, and women in decision-making positions.

The four studies evaluate what has changed for the better in the given areas in the Czech Republic, what are the persistent challenges, or shortcomings, and what policies of the Czech state are successful and in what aspects they fail. The monitoring report partly reflects on the events of recent months, and points to some gender contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Linda Sokačová‘s study deals with the topic of the gender dimension of poverty. In this context, she is interested in the issue of advance child support and the pension reform. She also mentions the evaluation of legislative changes not only in these areas, but also in the field of social housing. The study of Branislava Marvánová Vargová closely examines the topic of violence against women with an emphasis on the criminological approach. Among other things she also includes the debate on the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence. Šárka Homfray‘s study focuses on the economic status of women in Czech society, where the main problem is the gender-based pay gap. She points out the connection of this inequality and the perception of care and unpaid work as women‘s work. And last but not least, the study of Pavla Špondrová looks into the position of women in decision-making processes, both in politics and in the society. It shows the manifestations of inequality in this area and points to the progress that has so far significantly lagged behind official policy documents.

By Markéta Kos Mottlová, editor.

Read the 25 Years of the Beijing Platform for Action 2020 Social Watch Monitoring Report on Gender Equality (in English or in Czech) by Social Watch Czech Republic.

Source: Social Watch Czech Republic.