Feminist approaches to justice at Beijing +30

Abstract

This editorial introduction presents a special monograph issue of Current Sociology titled “Feminist Approaches to Justice at Beijing +30,” guest-edited by Rosemary Barberet, Dawn Beichner-Thomas, and Sheetal Ranjan. The issue marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), a landmark 1995 framework for gender equality that has shaped global advocacy, policy, and research yet remains under-analyzed in contemporary sociological scholarship. The editors situate the issue within the 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), held in March 2025, which drew over 13,000 participants and formally adopted a Political Declaration reaffirming member states’ commitments to the BPfA. Drawing on four collaborative “Feminist Approaches to Justice” panels convened at the NGO CSW69 Forum by four ECOSOC-accredited organizations—the International Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology’s Division of Feminist Criminology, Criminologists Without Borders, and the World Society of Victimology—the editors introduce eight peer-reviewed articles that critically assess the BPfA’s impact on justice for women and girls. The articles address themes including conflict and military-related sexual violence, femicide, a feminist criminology examination of the BPfA, the criminalization of women in gang-affected contexts, synergies between international human rights and humanitarian law, and India’s uneven implementation of Beijing commitments. Together, they illuminate both the enduring relevance and the persistent limitations of the BPfA.