A Women’s Place is in the World! 
In 1995, 189 countries including Ireland came together in China for the 4th UN World Conference on Women. The Conference adopted the United
Beijing+20 marks the 20th anniversary of the BPFA. In March 2015, the UN Commission on the Status of Women met in New York to review progress on the BPFA and the global achievement of women’s rights and equality.Nations Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA). This is a visionary roadmap for the achievement of women’s human rights and empowerment throughout the world.
On 20 February 2015, the IHREC and the National Women’s Council of Ireland organised A Women’s Place is in the World!, a high level one-day conference to mark Beijing+20. This conference celebrated achievements in advancing women’s rights in Ireland and globally over the past 20 years and set out the challenges that remain to be overcome. We are grateful to more than 50 contributors and 300 participants who made the conference such an inspiring event We were especially honoured that President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins opened the conference.
Speeches
President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins
Women’s rights: One of the great ethical issues of our time
Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women
Beijing+20: A game changer for women’s empowerment and gender equality
Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice
Beijing +20: the Climate Justice Way
Plenary Session 1
Siobhán Mullally, Director, Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, School of Law, University College Cork and member of IHREC
Download speech here
Plenary Session 2
Finola Brennan, National Collective of Community Based Women’s Networks
Download speech here
Dr. Mary P Murphy, Lecturer in Irish Politics and Society Maynooth University and member of IHREC
Download speech here
Jane Xavier, Domestic Workers Action Group, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland
Download speech here
Images / Programme / Biographies 
Click here to download the programme
Download speaker’s biographies here
The conference photos are on our Tumblr page here