The Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action (PfA) were the outcome documents adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995. The Conference was prepared years in advance by preparatory meetings among governments both on the international as well as regional and national levels. Equally important to the preparatory process initiated by states, were the preparations made by the civil society which took place parallel, or some times linked to the official preparations when NGO's lobbied their respective Governments on issues of importance. The two primary concern for this extensive preparation was 1) to make the process visible and known in all countries in order to flag the importance of its aim to improve women's rights and gender equality, and 2) to identify the critical areas of concern for the continuing process.

The Platform for Action, or the actual Action Plan adopted in Beijing is a document of intent based on consensus. It reflects the outcome of detailed negotiations among governments on wording that they finally could agree upon. Given the aim for consensus, several issues were discussed but not included in the final document, such as the issue of sexual orientation. In many areas, governments had to take on a compromising position to achieve an adopted document. Critical areas especially affected by the negotiations includes C. Women and Health (especially on the issue of reproductive rights ), G. Women in power and decision-making (on issues such as affirmative action) and L. The Girl Child (on all standpoints).

The Beijing Declaration formulates the political framework and commitments made by the Governments in adopting the Platform for Action. The document includes six components on different aspects of commitments made by Governments in adopting the final outcome, from financing to accountability mechanisms (see box 1).

The most important aspect of the Platform for Action and its forward looking strategies was the commitment to integrating a gender perspective in developing all aspects and spheres of society. This commitment to integrate, and take into consideration, women and men's diverse roles, responsibilities and opportunities in all forms of development and political processes has been labeled "gender mainstreaming" and is today the agreed overall strategy internationally to achieve the goal of gender equality.

In the preparatory process twelve areas were identified as crucial for the strengthening of women's right and gender equality and outlined in the final outcome as the "Critical Areas of Concern" and described further in "Strategic Objectives and Actions". The twelve areas are elaborated in the action-oriented part of the PfA containing commitments from Governments on actions to be undertaken. Although several groups of stakeholders and actors are mentioned as responsible parties in the documents, Governments bear the overall responsibility for positive change.

The twelve critical areas outlined in the Platform for Action adopted in Beijing in 1995

A. Women and poverty
B. Education and training of women
C. Women and Health
D. Violence against women
E. Women and armed conflict
F. Women and the economy
G. Women in power and decision-making
H. Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women
I. Human rights of women
J. Women and the media
K. Women and the environment
L. The girl-child.

Each of the 189 countries that adopted the Platform for Action in 1995 committed to the development of national action plans, as stated in paragraph 297 :

"Governments, in consultation with relevant institutions and non-governmental organizations, should begin to develop implementation strategies for the Platform; and, preferably by the end of 1996, should have developed their strategies or plans of actions…these implementation strategies should be comprehensive, have time bound targets and benchmarks for monitoring, and include proposals for allocating or reallocating resources for implementation."

In most countries today, governments have therefore developed national plans of action linked to the Platform for Action. In June 2000, a Special Session was held in order to follow up on the progress made of the national level in implementing the Platform for Action.