Preparatory Meeting

Indigenous Women and Beijing +20:

Progress and Challenges
Lima, Peru; 2-4 March 2015
ANNOUNCEMENT
The fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, was
attended by 189 State representatives and women in civil society around the world.
This Conference generated a Declaration and Platform for Action, which had as its main
objective the establishment of a program aimed at creating the conditions necessary to
raise the profile of the role of women and the recognition of their contributions to
society.
The Platform for Action identified 12 topics to address, which represented those of the
greatest concern for women, as follows: poverty; education and training; health;
violence; armed conflict; the economy; the exercise of power and decision-making;
institutional mechanisms for the advancement and development of women; human
rights; the media; women and the environment; and finally, the situation of the girl-child.
To oversee the implementation by States and international bodies of this Platform for
Action, the UN General Assembly assigned the responsibility for monitoring their
compliance to the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women, better known
as the Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW.
In June 2000, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the General Assembly
held its twenty-third special session, on the theme of Women 2000: gender equality,
development and peace for the twenty-first century. They reviewed the processes
achieved in the implementation of the Beijing Platform, adopting a Political Declaration
and the outcome document entitled, Further actions and initiatives to implement the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This review is known as Beijing +5 since it
was conducted 5 years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform. Later, two more
reviews were held, one in 2005 (Beijing +10) and the other in 2010 (Beijing +15), both
within the framework of the sessions of the CSW.1

Study Indigenous Women and Beijing +20. ECMIA, 2014.

Since 2015 marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Platform for Action, the
59th Session of the CSW, to be held in March, plans to include a review and
assessment of its achievements to date.
We indigenous women of the various regions have made great efforts so that, together,
we can make our demands heard during the Beijing Conferences and reviews.
Today, all these discussions contribute to what will be the global agenda going forward
as of 2015, and it is imperative that the perspectives and proposals of indigenous
women be included, and especially those of young women.
To this end, this meeting will be strategic in order to inform, discuss, reach a consensus
and build a collective stance as a global movement of indigenous women on the path to
Beijing +20.
General objective
Promote an assessment of the primary advances made, as well as the challenges
going forward, with regard to the current situation and conditions of indigenous women
within the framework of the twelve topics included in the Beijing Platform for Action 20
years after its implementation.
Specific objectives
- Review the progress made since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action.
- Share experiences and advances related to the twelve topics of intervention of
the Beijing Platform for Action.
- Record the challenges and unresolved issues of indigenous women in terms of
equal rights and empowerment.
- Gather input and solid proposals for Beijing +20.
- Strengthen the advocacy capacity of indigenous women of the ECMIA, together
with other womens movements and organizations of indigenous peoples, with
a view to establishing solid proposals for Beijing +20 and for the future.
Expected outcomes:
A structured document that records the progress and priorities to be addressed with
regard to the 12 areas of concern of the Beijing Platform and indigenous women.
A policy position paper that will be submitted to the 59th Commission on the Status of
Women and the International Conference on Population and Development.

Topics:
Indigenous women and poverty.
Indigenous women, violence and armed conflicts.
Comprehensive health, sexual and reproductive health rights.
Economic empowerment.
Women in the exercise of power and political participation.
Human rights and rights of indigenous women.
Education.
Methodology:
The Technical Secretariat of the ECMIA, together with CHIRAPAQ, the Center for
Indigenous Cultures of Peru, will be in charge of the logistics and coordination with the
participating organizations.
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Working sessions will be held in the form of plenary sessions, allowing opportunities for
questions and answers in order to pursue each topic in depth. There will be thematic
working groups with authoritative presentations by indigenous experts and special
guests.
Profile of participants:
Indigenous women, both adults and young women, who are representatives of
active indigenous womens organizations of ECMIA, and who are currently
assuming responsibilities and performing actions within their organization
involving the topics of Beijing +20.
Indigenous women, both adults and young women, who are representatives of
other mixed-gender indigenous organizations and networks at the regional and
international levels, and who have participated in the Beijing process since the
adoption of the Platform for Action.
Indigenous womens organizations that are interested in participating using
their own funds and in performing follow-up and work on the twelve topics of
the Beijing Platform for Action.
Special guests
Special guests: notable and recognized indigenous women leaders who have a
long history of work on behalf of indigenous womens rights, and who have
been involved in the Beijing process, as well as experts on the subject.
Observers
Representatives of various United Nations mechanisms involving women.
Representatives of Governments, secretariats and ministries involving women.

Time and Place:

The event will be held in Lima, Peru, from 2-4 March 2015.
Registration:
The announcement will be disseminated together with the registration form.
Indigenous women interested in participating must fill out the registration form,
attaching a cover letter from their organizations, to the following email:
ecmia.ecmia@gmail.com, by 1 February 2015.
A certain number of scholarships for participation will be provided.
Lima, January 2015