IPPF, Countdown 2030 Europe, Fòs Feminista and ARROW take note of the adoption of the Political Declaration in Doha at the Second World Summit for Social Development, which reaffirms commitments to social development and social justice.
The Summit offers a crucial moment for Member States to renew and strengthen global commitments to human rights and gender equality, in particular sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as an integral component of social development. SRHR remains a cornerstone of social development, shaping health, education, and economic outcomes across generations. Thirty years after the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration, the Summit further provides an opportunity to reaffirm that sustained and inclusive social progress is impossible without the full realization of all women’s and girl’s human rights, including their bodily autonomy.
The Political Declaration adopted today at the Second World Summit for Social Development lays forth commitments to advancing gender equality, particularly those aimed at dismantling gender stereotypes and negative social norms that continue to impede progress for all women and girls worldwide. Addressing these root causes is essential to achieving transformative and inclusive social development. The Political Declaration further provides commitments to address gender inequality by promoting access to sexual and reproductive health, eliminating all forms of gender-based violence, and redistributing women’s disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work. It similarly highlights the necessity of integrating a gender lens in efforts to eradicate poverty, tackle its structural causes, and combat the feminization of poverty.
The Political Declaration reaffirms commitments to realizing the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, including through Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and equitable access to quality health care and services for all. It underlines the recognition of health equity for persons with disabilities, and underscores that ensuring accessible, inclusive, and rights-based health systems is indispensable to achieving social justice and leaving no one behind.
However, there are several critical areas where the Political Declaration lacks sufficient ambition. Gender equality has not been sufficiently addressed throughout the text, leaving major gaps in how the rights of all women and girls are addressed across key dimensions of social development, particularly health, digital technologies, and climate change. While access to sexual and reproductive health is acknowledged in the context of achieving gender equality, the commitment fails to include the full recognition of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Realizing SRHR for all women and girls is foundational to progress across all dimensions of social development, from eliminating poverty and advancing economic empowerment to achieving gender equality and ensuring inclusive, affordable and comprehensive health services. The Political Declaration’s limited acknowledgment of this reality marks a substantive gap.
Similarly, the section on digital technologies lacks a gender perspective, overlooking the persistent gender digital divide and the disproportionate risks women and girls face online, including technology-facilitated gender-based violence. The Political Declaration fails to address the urgency and impacts of climate change, including the distinct and disproportionate effects on women and girls worldwide, in particular on their SRHR. It is essential to guarantee accessible, available, affordable, adaptable, and high-quality sexual and reproductive health and rights services that respond to the impacts of climate change. The formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all climate-related sexual and reproductive health and rights policies and services must systematically address the multiple barriers encountered by women and girls in all their diversities.
Moreover, we regret that the Political Declaration does not reaffirm the commitments of the Programme of Action of the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) – a major step back from the Copenhagen Declaration – nor the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences. These frameworks are foundational for advancing social development and gender equality, and their omission significantly undermines the recognition of how sexual and reproductive health and rights, women’s empowerment, and social progress are inextricably linked.
We note with concern that the Political Declaration falls short in recognizing various and diverse forms of families, which is critical to reflecting the reality of many family structures around the world. The ICPD Programme of Action, the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, and the Copenhagen Declaration all highlight that various and diverse families exist throughout the world. Although the Political Declaration calls for policies that address the needs of individual family members, it fails to guarantee their human rights in this context. Moreover, specific challenges and rights violations that occur within households remain unrecognized and unaddressed, which perpetuates cycles of poverty, social exclusion, and inequality that result in the exclusion of the most marginalized, who stand to benefit the most from social programs.
We regret the references to declining birth rates and declining fertility rates, without explicitly highlighting the importance of a human rights-based approach in how governments respond to demographic shifts, as this risks shaping development efforts and policies aimed at controlling fertility and birth rates, with too much focus on demographics rather than ensuring the realization of human rights. The lack of a reaffirmation of ICPD, which was decisive in terms of shifting the demographic focus and framing reproductive rights as human rights, compounds the concern of this demographic focus.
Finally, we deeply regret the lack of an inclusive and transparent process for civil society engagement throughout the preparations for the World Social Summit and negotiation process. This exclusion was a missed opportunity to draw on the expertise and lived experience of civil society, whose participation is essential to ensuring that social development policies are grounded in human rights, inclusivity, and evidence-based practice.
Looking ahead, it is essential that governments translate the commitments in this Declaration into concrete action, guided by the principles of gender equality, human rights and inclusivity. The realization of human rights, SRHR and gender equality is indispensable to achieving inclusive and sustainable social development.
We call on Member States to ensure that future processes fully integrate these principles, uphold the universality of human rights, and centre the voices and leadership of all women, girls, and marginalized communities in shaping a more just and equitable world.
Illustration: Izabela Markova
