Promoting gender equality has been one of the major priorities of the Non-Aligned Movement. On November 20 and 21, 2023, the Non-Aligned Movement organised a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the theme “Advancing Women’s Rights and Empowerment”. The Conference was jointly organised by Azerbaijan (current NAM chair), Uganda, and Uzbekistan (future NAM chairs). The conference was attended by representatives of NAM Member States as well as those of 9 international organisations including the UN, ISESCO, and the International Foundation for Turkic Culture and Heritage.
Opening the conference, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev remarked that defending women’s rights and empowerment of women stand high on the Non-Aligned Movement’s agenda. The successive NAM documents, including the Final Document of the Baku Summit of 2019, place a particular focus on this topic, setting commitments for the Member States. Aliyev said this conference was organised with an objective to serve as a significant platform for fruitful discussions on advancing the rights and empowerment of women.
After deliberating on issues pertaining to women rights and empowerment for two days, and exchanging views on topics such as the advancement of women’s rights and women’s empowerment within the NAM, as well as the importance of women’s role in sustainable development, economic growth, peace, security, and other areas, the conference adopted a Declaration which underscored the commitment to keep advancing the human rights and the empowerment of women as a visionary agenda for the NAM. The Declaration reaffirmed the commitment to ensuring representation and full, equal and meaningful participation of women in all facets of society and underlined the particular importance of promoting equal participation of women in the political systems of NAM Member States. The Declaration welcomed the increasing representation of women at the highest political levels and in elected Assemblies, including the recent examples in NAM Member States.
The Declaration reiterated the commitments of NAM to join efforts and continue combating all forms of violence against women, until its complete elimination and also recognised the importance of engaging men and boys in this process. It also reaffirmed the vital role of women and the need for their full, equal and meaningful participation in all areas of sustainable development, as well as providing them with equal opportunities for leadership in this regard. The Declaration also recognised the detrimental effects of unilateral coercive measures on women and girls, including on national policies and programs aimed at ensuring their wellbeing and the full realization of their human rights. The Declaration denounced such unilateral coercive measures and demanded their complete, immediate and unconditional repeal.
The Declaration acknowledged the central and coordinating role of the organizations of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, to support all States’ efforts in promoting the advancement and empowerment of women and the enjoyment of their human rights. It also applauded the inclusion of a stand-alone goal on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and the integration of a gender perspective into the 2030 Development Agenda. The Declaration welcomed the progress made towards the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, and reaffirmed support for the outcome documents of the 23rd special session of the United Nations General Assembly entitled, “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”.
The Declaration also emphasised the importance of intensifying, among NAM Member States, including through high-level interaction, the exchange of ideas, visions, and perspectives on current challenges in the advancement and empowerment of women and the enjoyment of their human rights to increase cooperation and take concerted and targeted actions in this regard. One of the important outcomes of the conference was the proposal to establish a NAM Women Platform. “We take note of the proposal to establish the NAM Women Platform and deliberate through NAM Coordinating Bureau on this initiative, including on the working modalities related thereto,” the 11th article of the Declaration stated.
As Aliyev stated in his introductory remarks, the conference served as a significant platform for fruitful discussions on advancing the rights and empowerment of women and launched a new chapter of concerted activity to that end in the history of the Non-Aligned Movement.
