Excerpted from foreword
Unfinished Business: A Parallel Report on Canada’s Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action has been prepared by a network of over 50 women’s rights and equality-seeking organizations, trade unions and independent experts to mark the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women.
Women’s rights and gender equality organizations have been conducting reviews of Canada’s progress in meeting the goals set out in the Beijing Platform every five years since 1995. Our goal this year is to produce a report that highlights the diverse realities of women who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and incorporates an up-to-date assessment of federal policy and programs supporting women and gender equality in Canada.
This parallel report is being submitted to the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in advance of the Beijing +25 Regional Review Meeting and provides an analysis of the 12 priority areas of concern identified in 1995 as well as additional information on key policy areas that are essential to women’s progress today. It contains a set of recommendations, developed in consultation with chapter authors and Beijing +25 network members, for the accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform.
These recommendations represent the diverse views and positions of women’s rights and gender equality groups in Canada and, as such, are offered as a point of departure for ongoing advocacy and public education work in the lead up to Beijing +25—including the annual UN Commission on the Status of Women Meetings, the #GenerationEquality Global CSO Forum being hosted by the governments of Mexico and France, and the high level meeting of the UN General Assembly in September 2020