WE, THE MINISTERS AND REPRESENTATIVES OF GOVERNMENTS, Having gathered at the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, in New York, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, to undertake a review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, including current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the realization of women’s and girls’ full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls throughout their life cycle, as well as to ensure the acceleration of the implementation of the Platform for Action and to use opportunities, in the post-2015 development agenda, for the integration of a gender perspective into economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, and with a commitment to ensuring the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into the preparations for and the integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to all the major United Nations conferences and summits in the development, economic, social, environmental, humanitarian and related fields so that they effectively contribute to the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, Action through concerted policy action at the national, regional and global levels, also welcome the review activities undertaken by Governments in the context of the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, noting the contributions of all other relevant stakeholders and the review outcomes, and look forward to the global leaders’ meeting on gender equality and women’s empowerment to be held on 26 September 2015; 4. Express concern that progress has been slow and un- even, that major gaps remain and that obstacles, including, inter alia, structural barriers, persist in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action, and recognize that 20 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, no country has fully achieved equality and empowerment for women and girls, that significant levels of inequality between women and men and girls and boys persist globally, and that many women and girls experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, vulnerability and marginalization throughout their life cycle; 5. Recognize that new challenges have emerged, and reaffirm our political will and firmly commit to tackle the challenges and remaining implementation gaps in all 12 critical areas of concern, namely, women and poverty, education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women and armed conflict, women and the economy, women in power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights of women, women and the media, women and the environment, and the girl child; 1. Reaffirm the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly and the declarations of the Commission on the Status of Women on the tenth and fifteenth anniversaries of the Fourth World Conference on Women; 6. Pledge to take further concrete action to ensure the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcome documents of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, including through strengthened implementation of laws, policies, strategies and programme activities for all women and girls; strengthened and increased support for institutional mechanisms for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at all levels; the transformation of discriminatory norms and gender stereotypes and the promotion of social norms and practices that recognize the positive role and contribution of women and eliminate discrimination against women and girls; significantly increased 2. Recognize that the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the fulfilment of the obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are mutually reinforcing in achieving gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and the realization of their human rights, and call upon States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying or acceding to the Convention and the Optional Protocol thereto; 3. Welcome the progress made towards the full imple- mentation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for 3