Celebrating 25 years of the World Conference on Women in Beijing: Switzerland is strongly committed to equal pay and combating domestic violence

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

Bern, 28.10.2019 - On 29 and 30 October 2019, Geneva will be transformed into a platform for an international exchange on gender equality and women's rights as the host of the European preparatory conference for the global review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The two-day event is taking place within the framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Switzerland will play a key role, with both a Swiss delegation participating in the debates and State Secretary Pascale Baeriswyl co-chairing the conference.

25 years after the adoption of a visionary agenda to empower women and girls, the international community is preparing to take stock of the progress that has been made since then in the area and the challenges that remain. The conference will take place in March 2020 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. In the run-up to this important global event, five regional preparatory conferences are organised this autumn.

In Europe, UNECE member states will present the concrete measures they have taken to implement the Beijing Platform for Action and share their experiences and best practices. Conference participants will also address how systemic obstacles which prevent women and girls from equal participation in all areas of public and private life can be removed. This includes such key topics as education and training, violence, armed conflict, economic autonomy, participation in decision-making processes and environmental protection from the perspective of women and girls.

At the conference, Switzerland will highlight its efforts in the fields of equal pay and combating domestic violence, including a presentation of a project in French-speaking cantons to promote gender equality in schools. Switzerland will also act as moderator on certain programme segments and organise a number of side events. In addition, State Secretary Pascale Baeriswyl, who will be co-chairing the conference, will have a number of bilateral meetings with high-ranking officials and UN decision-makers. The Swiss delegation will be led by Sylvie Durrer, who is the head of the Federal Office for Gender Equality, and Didier Chambovey, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the WTO and EFTA in Geneva.

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