Developing a Campaign for Gender Equality and Women’s Rights

The IPU is the global organization of parliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 181 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It facilitates parliamentary diplomacy and empowers parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy and sustainable development around the world. Its mission is to promote democratic governance, institutions and values, working with parliaments and parliamentarians to articulate and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people. It works for peace, democracy, human rights, gender equality, youth empowerment, climate action and sustainable development through political dialogue, cooperation and parliamentary action. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world. Twice a year, the IPU convenes over 1,500 parliamentary delegates and partners in a world assembly, bringing a parliamentary dimension to global governance, including the work of the United Nations and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

2025 will be a year of several milestones for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. It will mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), the 25th anniversary of the Women, Peace and security agenda (2000), and the ten-year milestone of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a leading organization for the advancement of gender equality, the IPU has an important role to play in mobilizing the parliamentary community and facilitating the identification of its course of action towards the realization of all such crucial commitments. In 2025, it will contribute a parliamentary perspective to the different milestones and mobilize the parliamentary community to action. Internally too, the IPU will have its own milestones as it will mark the 40th anniversary of the Forum of Women Parliamentarians and celebrate women’s leadership and solidarity.

Meanwhile, 2024 is already being a pivotal year for gender equality. By the time it is over, about 70 elections will have taken place, including in the world’s most populous countries; roughly half the world’s population will have gone to the polls; and thousands of parliamentary seats will have been up for grabs. Are the new parliaments more equal than before? As the last quarter of the year unfolds, nothing is less sure. On contrary, the potential of the super election year is looking like a missed opportunity for equality in parliament. By 1 September 2024, the share of women MPs inched up to 27% globally, only a mere 0.1 percentage points higher compared to the beginning of the year. At this rate, the already slow progress witnessed so far will be even lower in 2025 than in previous years.

Pushbacks are also amplifying on women and girls’ rights, freedoms and empowerment. The disproportionate effects of unrest, conflict and war on them are felt strong. Women are suffering a range of harms, from sexual and gender-based violence, to losses of their spouses, families, livelihoods and personal autonomy. Even during transitional and peacebuilding periods, women continue to be marginalised. The rollback on reproductive health, rights and justice is intensifying in too many countries with bans or limitations on abortion and reduced penalties for marital rape. Attempts to reinstate banned harmful practices such as female gentil mutilations or early marriages are mushrooming in several countries. In different parts of the world, proposals are popping up to narrow down the strength of laws protecting women and girls from gender-based violence.

The IPU has never been shy in affirming that, gender equality is essential in confronting crises and that gender equality in politics allows us to respond better to adversity by taking into account the diverse and intersectional needs of all, thereby delivering more effective results. In 2022, at the 145th IPU Assembly, the global parliamentary community adopted the Kigali Declaration as a commitment to advance gender equality and gender-sensitive parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world.

**Objectives of the campaign**

Today, realising the commitment made in Kigali can help parliaments lead the vital pushback on the pushbacks, by:
1. Promoting parity in parliament and politics

2. Being gender-sensitive institutions, embodying gender equality in their organization, functioning and ways of working

3. Combatting gender-based violence and discrimination

3 action areas that are central in 2025 as hard-won gains for women and girls are challenged and the perils of pushbacks are threatening and as it is the right time to put the IPU’s collective power at the service of protecting gender equality and continuing to make it a priority