Transcript:

What does Beijing +10 mean?

Violations of women's human rights occur in every country around the world, and Beijing +10 provides us with an important opportunity to put women's rights back on the international agenda and push for change.

For NGOs like Action Canada for Population and Development that focus on sexual rights and reproductive rights, the issues around violations of women's rights related to infant mortality, unsafe abortion and HIV/AIDS continue to be central to achieving women's equality around the world. And of course these issues are related to many other important human rights issues for women, including the eradication of poverty, ending violence against women, racism, colonialism, ensuring inheritance and property rights, and identifying and opposing all the negative influences of globalization.

At this 10-year review it's really important that governments also take on board women's sexual rights, which include but aren't limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex issues.

The Beijing +10 review coincides with the really serious attack by fundamentalists and conservative forces who are actively working to roll back women's rights and the gains that we've made over the last decade. Within this shifting political climate, it's particularly important that Canada continue its international leadership on gender equality issues generally and specifically on sexual rights and reproductive rights.

Like all world conferences that relate to human rights, and their reviews, Beijing +10 provides a really important milestone for advancing women's rights. UN meetings generally have opened up important places and spaces for global feminists to meet and build and strengthen alliances.

Beijing +10 provides us with one more important opportunity to strategize about how we can hold all of our governments to account for respecting, protecting and fulfilling the full range of women's human rights..