Mahnaz Afkhami, opens her speech with the preparatory process that lead to the Beijing process, started by a very small group of women. In her speech she points out how things have changed so quickly through the years as various spaces in the UN opened up. But she reminds the audience that some of the things that were taken for granted, "All issues are Women's issues and Women's Rights are Human rights" were advocacies that we had to struggle through many years. She goes on to say that although the accomplishments such as a legislation against violence that are already in place for women, there is still a tremendous gap that remains to be addressed with numbers like 500,000 young girls are trafficked every year. Much is needed to be done for legislation for women.