SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec 6, CMC -The 66th meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean has ended here with delegates reaffirming “once again their commitment to take all necessary and progressive measures so that States, as guarantors of rights, accelerate the effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Regional Gender Agenda”.
The current board of directors is headed by Argentina with the others members coming from Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The intergovernmental meeting, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC, agreed to strengthen the institutions and architecture for achieving gender equality.
The delegates have agreed to prioritize mechanisms for the advancement of women at the highest level, reinforcing the role of these mechanisms as governing bodies for gender equality policies, women’s rights and autonomy, and mainstreaming the gender perspective at the different levels of government and branches of government, and ensuring an increase in the allocation of financial, technical and human resources, gender-sensitive budgeting, and monitoring and accountability with citizen participation.
The XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will be held in Mexico from August 12 to 15, 2025 and at the two-day meeting which ended on Thursday, the Presiding Officers approved the roadmap, which includes a series of regional and subregional activities with governments, academics, parliamentarians and civil society organizations, among other actors.
The theme of the Conference in Mexico will be “Transformations in the political, economic, social, cultural and environmental spheres to promote a society of care and gender equality.”
“Today we find ourselves at a decisive moment, with a historic opportunity to reimagine our societies. The XVI Regional Conference on Women, to be held in Mexico next year, will be a key space to consolidate regional commitments towards gender equality, the construction of a care society and sustainability,” said ECLAC executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
He called for progress in strategic investments and public policies to address the current care crisis, in order to guarantee a fair future for present and future generations.
The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for Policy Support, United Nations System Coordination and Programme Results at UN-Women, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda said Latin America and the Caribbean are reshaping the global conversation and setting new standards for gender equality.
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“Let us continue to place women and girls in all their diversity at the front and center of our efforts, ensuring that every girl has the opportunity to live her life free of barriers and full of possibilities. I cannot conclude without saying: long live Latin America and the Caribbean,”Gumbonzvanda said.
During the meeting, delegates welcomed the working document Action for equity, development and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean, the draft regional regional report on the review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 30 years after its adoption in synergy with the implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda, presented by ECLAC.
The delegates also agreed to support the strengthening of the Gender Equality Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG) by updating official statistics and gender indicators, creating a repository of regulatory frameworks and preparing studies that contribute to monitoring the Regional Gender Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Declaration of the Ministers and High Authorities of the National Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean was approved for the 69th session of the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women, which will focus on the review and evaluation of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
CMC/gh/ir/2024