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Amid a global backlash against women鈥檚 rights, thousands of people head to New York City this month for the world鈥檚 largest annual event focused on women鈥檚 empowerment. Dubbed 鈥淏eijing+30,鈥� the special session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will evaluate progress implementing the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a 30-year-old blueprint for gender equality.

Silvia Hern谩ndez, a former Mexican senator who led her country鈥檚 delegation in 1995 to the first Women鈥檚 Conference, said the her country鈥檚 delegates in Beijing came from across the political spectrum. 鈥淚t made us realize that the differences ran deep, but that there were some areas that ran even deeper and that could unite us,鈥� she said in an interview.

The 1995 conference is perhaps best remembered for the famous declaration by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, 鈥淗uman rights are women鈥檚 rights and .鈥� But it was Latin American feminists who helped enshrine the concept in the UN Charter 50 years earlier鈥搊ver US objections.

When 50 countries came together at the 1945 San Francisco Conference to draft the UN Charter, women made up just  of participants. Of the six women among the , three were Latin American, Brazil鈥檚 Bertha Lutz, the Dominican Republic鈥檚 Minerva Bernardino, and Uruguay鈥檚 Isabel Pinto de Vidal. Together, they  to include language that made gender equality central to modern human rights principles.

At the 1945 San Francisco Conference, women made up just  of participants. Of the six women among the , three were Latin American. Together, they  to include language that made gender equality central to modern human rights principles.鈥�

For Bernardino, the issue was so urgent that after  the night before her first speech, she convinced her doctor not to apply a cast so she could make it to the podium the next day. Along with the other Latin American women in San Francisco, she pressed for the Charter鈥檚  to promote 鈥渞espect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.鈥� For her part, Pinto Vidal  ensuring the Charter guaranteed women  to UN roles and participation.

It was thanks to  that the Charter鈥檚 preamble included the word 鈥渨omen鈥� when affirming 鈥�,鈥� though US delegate Virginia Gildersleeve said her insistence was 鈥�.鈥� Lutz, , also proposed the creation of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. At the 1949 commission meeting, Castillo Led贸n  on the political rights of women, guaranteeing the right to vote and hold office. The UN adopted that language in 1952 and in the next few years, women won the right to vote in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, and Colombia. Later, the treaty served as a  to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

These contributions challenge the notion that feminist ideas 鈥渢rickled down to the Global South,鈥� according to Katherine Marino, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and author of , a history of the Pan-American women鈥檚 rights movement. Latin America was 鈥渁 creator of rights, and especially of international human rights,鈥� she said in an interview.

Indeed, the region has continued to play a pioneering role in women鈥檚 rights. In 1975, for example, the first UN Women鈥檚 Conference took place in Mexico City. Mexican President Luis Echeverr铆a was jockeying to lead the UN General Assembly at the time. Hosting the conference allowed his government to  on the global stage, even as it divided Mexican feminists, given  in the violent repression of dissent.

But Duke University Professor Jocelyn Olcott, who authored the book , argued that the frictions in Mexico City made it innovative. The event highlighted issues such as the gender wage gap and unpaid domestic work and paved the way for the UN Decade for Women, an equality-focused , and for women鈥檚 conferences in Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing (1995).

These global gatherings helped give rise to networks in Latin America to combat gender-based violence and advance women鈥檚 political power. Today, 36% of lawmakers in the region are women, the  in the world.鈥� 

These global gatherings helped give rise to networks in Latin America to combat gender-based violence and advance women鈥檚 political power. Today, 36% of lawmakers in the region are women, the  in the world. Nearly  that have elected a woman head of state are in Latin America and the Caribbean. One of them, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, later served as the first head of UN Women in 2010.

But pendulums swing in both directions. Eighty years after Lutz fought to include the word 鈥渨omen鈥� in the UN Charter, a number of Latin American governments are working to . In his January speech to the World Economic Forum, Argentine President Javier Milei promised to remove  from the penal code and dismissed the importance of the , estimated to be 25% in the country. Last year, El Salvador excised discussions of 鈥溾�� from public school materials. In recent years, in the run up to the 30th anniversary of the historic Beijing conference, lawmakers from the Dominican Republic to Bolivia to Uruguay have introduced  to weaken protections against sexual violence and restrict reproductive rights.