The Baha’i International Community (BIC) this week launched a new book, In Full Partnership: Thirty Years of Women’s Advancement at the United Nations and Beyond, honoring 30 years since the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the creation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a crucial United Nations (UN) framework for advancing the status of women and girls around the world.

Intended as a resource for policymakers, UN agencies, and civil society organizations, In Full Partnership serves as an invitation for collective action and consultation on practical steps toward achieving lasting gender equality and justice. 

Over 100 participants joined the launch event, both online and in person, including current and former representatives from the Permanent Missions of Bangladesh, Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, as well as the European Union. UN officials, including from UN Women, and civil society representatives also joined. The event contributed to global “Beijing+30” initiatives reflecting on the international community’s commitments, challenges, and progress in advancing gender equality over three decades.

Addressing the event by video, Ms. Bani Dugal, the BIC’s Principal Representative, who assisted the BIC during the original Beijing conference, said, “The Baha’i community’s commitment to gender equality and justice is rooted in the belief that all human beings are created to create an ever-advancing civilization, and that gender equality is a prerequisite for peace.”

“The Baha’i International Community invites all of you, and others who read this book, to embrace some of the principles and thoughts that have been shared in our statements over the years,” Ms. Dugal added.

The event featured keynote speaker Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde, of Costa Rica, who as incumbent Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, welcomed the book’s publication, celebrated the progress made since the Beijing conference, and highlighted Beijing+30 as a moment for reflection and recommitment.

“Yet, let us be clear. Our journey toward gender equality, the empowerment of all women and girls, and the full enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms is unfinished,” Ambassador Chan said.

The Ambassador also said that today’s challenge is no longer about whether to act, but the extent to which humanity embraces its collective responsibilities. “When we put women and girls at the center, societies become safer, economies stronger, and peace more enduring.… Empowerment and the rights of women and girls define our leadership for today and for tomorrow, and for the future we are accountable to.”

Liliane Nkunzimana, Representative of the Baha’i International Community, who also serves as Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of NGO CSW, provided background on the BIC’s vision for In Full Partnership. “This book is an invitation for the international community to reckon with the enduring challenges that we see around the world.”

“And we hope that together, after this discussion and moving forward, we are able to recommit to this shared narrative that we have about the kind of world that we are trying to build together,” she said.

The event’s discussion explored challenges since the Fourth World Conference as well as hopeful advances. Béatrice Maille, Minister-Counsellor and Legal Advisor at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN, said, “It is important to remember that this is a partnership. We will get to this goal of gender equality if we remain on the path together—all together for the good of humanity.”

In expanding on this shared partnership and the full responsibilities of all, she said: “I am encouraged when I see young men stand up for women.”

Commenting on the long history of efforts advanced by feminists, Lopa Banerjee, Director of the Civil Society Division at UN Women said: “The world today is more equal for women and girls than ever before. And this has not happened by accident. It has happened because of feminists mobilizing for decades, pushing governments to turn the words of the Beijing Platform for Action into concrete change in the lives of women and girls.”

Looking to deliberations at the UN General Assembly’s High-Level discussions next week, Ms. Banerjee added: “Gender equality is not an ideology. It is a unifying force for peace, development, and human rights. And its absence is the fault line running through every crisis we face.”

Reflecting on the contributions outlined in the book, Pamela Morgan, Co-Chair of NGO CSW/NY, said: “I believe that this comprehensive group of statements covering such a wide range of topics, including both men and boys, should be required reading for all the representatives coming to the UN, because it is actually like a love letter to humanity.”

“Seeing like-minded people who sacrifice to come together, with a commitment to not go back, gives me hope,” Ms. Morgan said.

In acknowledging and reframing the setbacks faced by the women’s rights movement, Charlotte Bunch, a global feminist and human rights activist who was at the Beijing Conference, and is founder of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and professor of Women’s & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, said: “The ferocity of the backlash against the gains from not only Beijing, but all the way back to Mexico City and further back, shows us how important the changes have been.”

Noting that transformative change is often accompanied by such backlash, Ms. Bunch said: “We are a part of one of history’s really profound changes that has been occurring over at least a couple hundred years. Beijing was really a landmark … it was the high point of this phase of the struggle for women’s equality and particularly for women’s human rights.”

In closing the event, former BIC Representative Saphira Rameshfar, who led the BIC’s engagement in gender equality discourse for close to a decade, said: “As we’re here today, we’ve had this beautiful invitation to reflect, to think about what has really worked in certain instances where gender equality has been able to move forward, and to think about where we move from here.”

“We are seeing a movement of young people, older people, groups of families who are very energized, and who are hopeful, and who are cognizant of the significance of this particular moment in history,” Ms. Rameshfar added. “It is a collective movement, it is a partnership.”

Background

In Full Partnership consolidates the BIC’s extensive engagement with UN mechanisms, including all four World Conferences on Women and sustained participation in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The book covers the original 12 “critical areas of concern” outlined in the Beijing Declaration and introduces two additional significant themes: the role of men and boys in the advancement of women, and the intersections between faith and feminism.

The publication offers hopeful and practical examples, drawing on the efforts of Baha’i communities in over 100,000 localities worldwide, showcasing how collaborative efforts with friends, co-workers, and government officials can foster societies that embody the principle of gender equality. The book highlights how new attitudes, new patterns of thought and mutual support, and new institutional arrangements dedicated to the education, participation, and flourishing of women and girls alongside men and boys can emerge as central characteristics of thriving societies.

Featuring vibrant photography from across the globe, the book celebrates the diversity and decades of dedicated work to advance the status of women, and affirms successes yet to come.

“The quest for gender equality is not merely about improving conditions for half of humanity,” the book’s foreword reads. “It is a central component of a flourishing society and a key prerequisite for lasting peace.”