Advocacy & Lobbying
Authors: Jennifer Klein, Rachel Vogelstein, and Lauren Hoffman
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the 1995 United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, a watershed moment in the fight for women’s rights, where 189 nations adopted an ambitious Platform for Action to achieve the full and equal participation of women and girls. While the past three decades have produced important gains, this work remains unfinished, and new challenges threaten to reverse progress for women and girls. This report, produced by the Women’s Initiative at Columbia's Institute of Global Politics and GWL Voices, provides an actionable roadmap to advance the full and equal participation of women and girls in the twenty-first century—including in the areas of democracy and human rights, technology, economic participation, and conflict and climate. The report also proposes key levers designed to accelerate the pace of change, including innovative financing, institutional leadership and reform, coalition building, and improved data and research. It concludes with a call to accelerate action towards fulfilling the Beijing Platform and realizing the promise of women’s human rights once and for all.
More than 750 women from across Nigeria are staging a peace walk in Abuja today, Monday, September 22, 2025, urging lawmakers to pass the long-awaited Special Seats Reserved for Women Bill aimed at increasing female representation in governance.
The women, drawn from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are gathering at the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development.
From there, they will march to the main venue, where a stakeholder meeting is scheduled to take place.
During the event, the group is expected to present a formal memorandum to leaders of the National Assembly, advocating for legislative backing of the gender-inclusive bill.
Ebere Ifendu, Chair of the Women’s Political Participation Technical Working Group (WPP–TWG), said the peace walk is a powerful expression of women’s collective resolve to play a more active role in national leadership.
More than 750 Nigerian women, representing all 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have converged on Abuja in a historic show of solidarity to submit a memorandum at the National Public Hearing for the Special Seats Reserved for Women Bill.
According to the Chair of the Women’s Political Participation–Technical Working Group (WPP–TWG), Ebere Ifendu, the women embarked on a peaceful walk to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, where the leadership of the National Assembly would receive their memorandum during a stakeholder engagement.
Although the National Assembly is currently on recess, Ifendu emphasised that Nigerian women remain resolute and determined to use the symbolic action to press home their demand for gender inclusion in governance.
Nigeria’s ongoing debate on women’s political inclusion will take centre stage today, Thursday, in Abuja, with policymakers, civil society leaders, and grassroots women converging for “She The People”, a high-level dialogue convened by the Emerge Women Development Initiative.
Themed “Deepening the Conversation, Accelerating Women’s Representation in Governance”, the dialogue will spotlight gender-focused legislative reforms before the National Assembly and explore strategies to build momentum to push for the passage of the Reserved Seats for Women Bill (HB 1349 & SB 440).
Founder of the initiative, Mary Ikoku, said the dialogue, strategically scheduled ahead of the public hearing on the Reserved Seats Bill slated for September 22, 2025, at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, offers an urgent corrective measure to decades of exclusion.
Full article here.
Speakers at a press conference have called on the political parties to reconsider their stance on reserved seats for women in the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament).
They also stressed that changes must be brought in the decisions reached in discussions between the National Consensus Commission with the political parties, over reserved women’s seats in parliament and giving nomination to female candidates in 300 constituencies.
According to them, those changes must be incorporated in the proposed July National Charter.
They also warned that unless women’s voices are taken seriously, they will chart their own course at the ballot box.
Full article here.
The herstoric Hine E Hine gathering concluded today after three days celebrating 40 years of the Māori women’s refuge movement. Founding leader Denise Messiter ONZM used the occasion to connect decades of liberation work with urgent calls for pay equity, women’s representation, and greater Māori participation in democracy.
Hosted by Waikato Women’s Refuge Te Whakaruruhau, the gathering brought together veteran wāhine toa and emerging leaders from across Aotearoa. It was the first such event in 30 years.
“This gathering has celebrated the movement and our work in the emancipation of women across Aotearoa,” said Messiter, who has led refuge mahi in Hauraki for four decades. “Now we must turn that strength into political action, starting with the local body elections.”
The Compendium of Good Practices on Advancing Women’s Political Participation in the OSCE Region, compiled on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, presents good practices for enhancing women’s participation in parliaments, political parties, elections and local politics in the OSCE region.
Learn more about the challenges facing women in politics in our infographic, which is based on statistical data in the compendium. Click here to access the high resolution version of the visual.
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As a result of the cooperation between the Centre for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR), UN Women and UNDP, and with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND), CAWTAR successfully launched the “Legal and Human Rights of Women and Men: between Equality and Gaps” in Tunis on 28 March 2016. The e-platform aims to assist policy makers, women machineries and concerned civil society organization to better asses, analyze and understand the legal status of women across the region by compiling laws related to the status of gender and human rights in 20 Arab countries. The e-platform enables users to search by different topics and related rights, such as education, health, violence, political participation and contribution, access to justice and right to litigation in economy in each country. The online tool also allows for regional, cross-country comparisons across topics and indicators and provides information about best practices to facilitate experience exchange among Arab countries, and accordingly encourage legal reforms. Click here to know more.
The first ever indigenous peoples world conference concludes with a focus on climate.The Outcome Document also focuses on the rights of indigenous women and addressed the problem of violence against women, which he said “must be at the top of the agenda.”
This publication, published in 2013 by the International Institute for Electoral Assistance and Democracy, identifies the obstacles preventing marginalized people from taking active part in customary and democratic decision-making. It highlights strategies for managing transition from political exclusion to inclusion and identifies lessons that could be adopted by marginalized groups. Drawing on experience from 38 case studies, the publication describes how different marginalized groups have worked to overcome barriers to their participation in political decision-making.