Canadian Beijing+25 Network

The Canadian Beijing+25 Network is a grassroots network of over 70 feminist and equality-seeking organizations working domestically on women’s rights and gender equality issues in Canada. The organizations within the Network are committed to monitoring the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) in Canada. The Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women / Institut canadien de recherches sur les femmes (CRIAW-ICREF) participated in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), where the Beijing Declaration and BPfA was adopted. In the 25 years since the BPfA, civil society organizations have been using this framework to advocate for progress on the rights of women and girls.

In late 2020, CRIAW-ICREF received funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada to serve as the Secretariat of the Network. We worked closely with the National Association of Women and the Law, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the Canadian Labour Congress as the project working group. The funding has enabled the Network to have dedicated human resources as well as translation of resources and honoraria for the groups who generously volunteered their time to contribute to the Network’s important work.

The Canadian Beijing+25 Network serves as an organizing point where civil society organizations in Canada can come together to work collaboratively on the critical areas of the BPfA, engage in the review process and the Generation Equality Forums (GEF), and determine key priorities for domestic action. The Network facilitates communication and collaboration between members through shared knowledge, resources, and recommendations to advocate for change domestically during the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and beyond.

As a part of the 25-year review process, Network members produced a parallel report called Unfinished Business, which was submitted to UN Women in October 2019. Building on this work, and supported by this funding, Network members have organized as Working Groups and worked collaboratively on a number of thematic areas set out by the UN Women in the form of Action Coalitions and a Compact. The materials produced by Working Groups include priorities, commitments and recommendations for action that can be used by women’s rights organizations, at the national, regional, provincial and local levels to advocate for concrete actions from governments.

Check out all the materials produced by the Canadian Beijing+25 Network.

For more information on the Canadian Beijing+25 Network, and to access the materials from this project, please visit www.bpfacanada.ca