12 critical areas of concern identified in the Beijing Platform for Action.

1. The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women
2. Unequal access to and inadequate educational opportunities
3. Inequalities in health status, and unequal access to and inadequate health-care services
   
4. Violence against women
   
5. Effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women
   
6. Inequality in women's access to and participation in the definition of economic structures and policies and the production process itself
   
7. Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making at all levels
   
8. Insufficient mechanisms at all levels to promote the advancement of women
   
9. Lack of awareness of and commitment to internationally and nationally recognized women's human rights
   
10. Insufficient mobilization of mass media to promote women's positive contribution to society
    
11. Lack of adequate recognition and support for women's contribution to managing natural resources and safeguarding the environment
    
12. The girl-child.