Today the UN marks a major milestone in the global women’s movement: the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women.
After Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985, some 20,000 people, representing 189 countries, gathered in Beijing, China from 4–15 September 1995.
Governments signed up to The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which has been described as “the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights.”
Outside the formal UN negotiations, advocates representing the full intersectional diversity of the feminist movement met in parallel events.
Coumba Toure was one of them. She travelled to Beijing from Dakar, Senegal and reminisces on what the experience was like.