Despite global efforts, the Cook Islands National Council of Women’s three-day summit this week highlights that the core gender equality issues faced decades ago remain critically urgent today.

As the Cook Islands National Council of Women (CINCW) launches today into a three-day “uikaraurau” summit to plan for the future, the head of delegation, who led the Cook Islands to the 1995 United Nations World Conference on Women and Development in Beijing, says 30 years has done little to change the urgency of gender equality for Cook Islands women.

Former director for women in the then Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jean Tuarae, was a leading part of the Cook Islands delegation to the 1995 meeting in China.

Eyeing the issues on the agenda for CINCW sessions this week, she says the issues of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995 remain the same for women in 2025.

The sessions of the uikaraurau will support umbrella themes of happy homes, healthy homes and safe homes and draw attention to proposed work streams to 2027 for the organisation. There will also be discussion on the most recent Cook Islands report to the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW.

“Thirty years ago, we were looking at these issues, and today, they are still on the table,” Tuarae said, “the issues are as critical now, or more critical than ever.” 

A Pacific platform for action with a more cultural, oceanic lens on the issues of equality for Pacific women was launched in 1994 and formed part of the momentum for Pacific delegations headed to China in 1995, but Tuarae recalls much of the effort being on movement building and helping to foster networks for leaders of the time.

In 1985, as part of the world decade for women, the Cook Islands head of Internal Affairs was Kopu Brown. Together with Tuarae, Vereara Maeva, Mii Rairi, and Fanaura Kingstone, who had just completed a stint with ESCAP (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific), the work of ensuring a strong Cook Islands voice in the Pacific momentum to Beijing began. 

The Cook Islands delegation merged with 40,000 activists who ultimately endorsed the BPA’s critical areas to advance women’s equality.

In 1995, Tuarae says, the focus was on representation and voice, with New Zealand providing funding to help support participation and impact at the global forum, for the concerns of Cook Islands women.

While much of the concerns of Beijing Platform for Action cover poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, human rights, the media, and the environment, the top three issues in 1995 were education, health and abuse in the home, says Tuarae.

And the challenge was always data, she adds.

“When we looked at abuse in the home, it was there, but our women were not forthcoming to highlight it. Women didn’t have the reporting and cases being brought to the Police … and there were very high rates of cases being cancelled or withdrawn.”

And for Pa Enua women, the tyranny of distance was also real. Irregular transport schedules and weather added to the slow turnaround between boat arrivals.

“It meant that for women and economic access, the supply and consumer issues were hard. Their needs could not be met. They had to revert to being their own suppliers and growers or fishers, it was all down to themselves,” says Tuarae.

Today the context is regional – a Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration which came from the 2012 Forum Leaders meeting hosted in Rarotonga has been embedded in a regional “Blue Pacific Strategy” to 2050 framework. But for many families the experiences of low female participation in political leadership and rates of gender-based violence being amongst the highest in the world are the postcard for gender equality.

For Tuarae, the reality of gender in 2025 and gender in 1995 is a wake-up moment, calling for new answers, new initiatives to ongoing challenges as Cook Islanders continue to seek solutions to the ongoing challenges confronting our nation.

• Lisa Leilani Williams