Film Series: Rights in Reverse? The Global Gender Equality Struggle 30 Years After Beijing
Kilden's Annual Conference 2025: Rights in Reverse? – The Global Gender Equality Struggle 30 Years After Beijing
In 2025, we mark three central anniversaries that shaped the global struggle for gender equality:
- 1975: The UN International Women's Year placed women's rights on the global agenda.
- 1995: The Beijing Platform for Action affirmed that gender equality is a universal human right.
- 2000: The Platform laid the groundwork for the resolution on Women, Peace and Security.
Much has been achieved since then, but at the same time, we are currently seeing a clear global reversal where previous progress, such as reproductive rights, is being weakened. Anti-rights movements are attacking gender equality policy and research, and democratic setbacks mean that women's rights can no longer be taken for granted.
The question is: Where does the global gender equality struggle truly stand today?
Kilden kjønnsforskning.no (Kilden genderresearch.no) invited researchers, activists, and decision-makers to the 2025 annual conference to share knowledge, broaden perspectives, and chart the course forward. The presentations provide insight into rights under pressure, from the digital spread of misogyny to Indigenous rights in the gender equality struggle. The conference also posed the question: What are the arguments for and against organizing a fifth global women's conference now?
You can now watch the film series "Rights in Reverse? The Global Gender Equality Struggle 30 Years After Beijing" on Kilden's YouTube channel.
Keynote: The role of feminism in a time of authoritarianism: Thirty years after Beijing
Mona Eltahawy, egyptian-American journalist and author. She writes for publications worldwide on Islam, women's issues, politics, and society in the Middle East.
Keynote: The movements, money and machinery behind the digital churn of online misogyny and anti-gender ephemera
Tina Askanius, professor of Media and Communication Studies at Malmö University.
Researcher Relay: 30 Years Since Beijing – What Now?
Researchers provide insights into rights under pressure and what is needed to counter the opposing forces.
Anti-gender movement: What’s beyond the anti-LGBTIQ+ backlash?
Ved Haley McEwen, researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Beijing+30: Reclaiming feminist agendas beyond colonial structures
By Salma Nims from the Jordanian Women’s Union (JWU).
Panel Discussion "Is the time right for a new global women's conference?"
Three decades after Beijing, we ask: How can women's voices – especially from the Global South – gain greater influence in international decisions? What are the arguments for and against a new global women's conference?
Panel discussion with:
- Mona Eltahawy, Egyptian-American journalist and author.
- Salma Nims, from the Jordanian Women’s Union (JWU).
- Anne Hellum, Professor Emerita of Public Law at the Department of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Oslo.
- Khansa Ali, Head of MiRA-Senteret.
- Sidsel Bleken, Director of Section in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD).
- Moderator: Kristin Engh Førde.