From the Inside Out: The Role of Organizational Change and Capacity Building in the Promotion of Gender Equality in the OSCE

In 1995, 189 governments and more than 5,000 representatives from 2,100 non-governmental organizations took part in the “Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace” in Beijing. The principal themes of the conference were the advancement and empowerment of women in relation to women’s human rights, women and poverty, women and decision-making, the girl-child, and violence against women. The conference resulted in two key documents: the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action. The overriding message of the Fourth World Conference on Women was that the issues addressed in the Platform for Action are global and universal. Deeply entrenched attitudes and practices, in all parts of the world, perpetuate inequality and discrimination against women, in public and private life. Accordingly, implementation requires changes in values, attitudes, practices, and priorities at all levels. The conference signalled a clear commitment to international norms and standards of equality between men and women; that measures to protect and promote the human rights of women and girlchildren must, as an integral part of universal human rights, underlie all action; and that institutions at all levels must be reoriented to expedite implementation. Governments and the UN agreed to promote gender mainstreaming in policies and programmes. At the policy level, the participating States of the OSCE have made clear their commitment to gender equality and recognized that the full and equal exercise by women of their human rights is essential to achieve a more peaceful, prosperous, and democratic OSCE area. Through the OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality adopted at the Sofia Ministerial Council in 2004, the OSCE also demonstrated a critical awareness that “gender issues” are not simply external concerns to be addressed within the participating States, or through the OSCE’s programmatic work. Rather, gender issues permeate the Organization itself and it is only by addressing both external and internal issues in tandem that the OSCE can move forward in pro-