Women and girls took center stage at the Global Citizen Festival in New York City on Saturday night, with Beyoncé, Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai rallying more than 60,000 fans in support of girls’ education and other major development goals to end global poverty.

SEE MORE: Malala wows world leaders with this speech at UN General Assembly.

And on Sunday, world leaders gathered at the U.N. to personally commit to fight for equality for women and girls, to end gender inequality by 2030. It was an unprecedented personal commitment from so many world leaders at once, meant to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995, the conference where the U.N. outlined steps to eliminate gender inequality, and where then First Lady Hillary Clinton famously said “women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.” Twenty years on, about 80 world leaders spoke about commitments to gender equality, including the leaders of Germany, Chile, Kenya and Mexico. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reminded those world leaders that “you have the power and responsibility to ensure that gender equality is — and remains — a national priority.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was the first to speak. “We need women for peace, we need women for development,” she said, noting that the German government has expanded child care and passed a law requiring major companies to have boards that are at least 30% female. “Commitments are good, action is better. Let us take action!”