Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean committed to accelerate the effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Regional Gender Agenda

Countries in the region participating in the Sixty-Sixth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean They reaffirmed “once again the 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 intergovernmental meeting, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in its capacity as Secretariat of the Conference, in coordination with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), took place on Wednesday, December 4 and Thursday, December 5 in Chile, with the participation of Ministers and High Authorities of the National Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women (MAM) of the region, specialists and representatives of civil society.

The delegates present at the meeting in Santiago they agreed strengthen the institutions and architecture for the achievement of gender equality, through the prioritization at the highest level of the mechanisms for the advancement of women, reinforcing the role of these mechanisms as governing entities of gender equality policies , rights and autonomy of women and the mainstreaming of the gender perspective at different levels of government and powers of the State, and ensuring the increase in the allocation of financial, technical and human resources, budgeting with a gender perspective and monitoring and surrender of accounts 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. At the meeting of the Board of Directors, the countries approved the roadmapwhich 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 the society of care and gender equality.”

“Today we find ourselves at a decisive moment, with the 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 society of care and sustainability,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs. , Executive Secretary of ECLAC, calling for progress in strategic investments and public policies to confront the current care crisis, in order to guarantee a fair future for present and future generations.

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for Policy Support, United Nations System Coordination and Program Results of UN-Women, indicated that “Latin America and the Caribbean are reshaping the global conversation and establishing new standards for gender equality. The Declaration of the Ministers and High Authorities of the National Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean strengthens the paradigm of the care society. Let us continue to put women and girls in all their diversity front and center in 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! Long live women and #VivasNosVamos!

“The culture of equality has come to settle. In institutions, in our lives, in our countries, in our communities. It is time to defend what has been achieved and not allow setbacks. It is time for women because every action we do for a girl, a young woman and a woman will have an impact on the cultural change of our society,” said Ingrid Gómez Saracíbar, undersecretary for issues of violence against women at the Secretariat of the Women of Mexico, in the name of Citlalli Hernández Mora, designated head of the same Secretariat, in her capacity as Vice President of the Board of Directors and representing the host country of the next Conference. “For Mexico, the XVI Regional Conference on Women, which will be held from August 12 to 15, 2025, will be the opportunity to publicize the historic agreements of the Beijing Platform and other international agreements and treaties on gender equality and of women’s rights that have allowed us as countries to advance on the path of guaranteeing and expanding rights,” she said.

At the meeting in Santiago, the representatives welcomed the working document Action for equality, development and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean: draft regional report on the examination of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 30 years after its approval in synergy with the implementation of the Regional Agenda for Genderpresented by ECLAC, whose final version, which will include comments from the countries, will be taken to the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69) which will take place in 2025 in New York.

The delegates also agreed to support the strengthening of the Gender Equality Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG), through the updating of official statistics and gender indicators, the creation of a repository of regulatory frameworks and the preparation of studies that contribute both to the monitoring of the Regional Gender Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the creation of institutional capacities with a gender focus in the countries.

Along the same lines, the Statement of the Ministers and High Authorities of the National Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women of Latin America and the Caribbean for the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which will focus on the review and evaluation of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the Twenty-third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

In the Declaration, the representatives recognized the achievements made and the lessons learned regarding the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the national level, in synergy with the Regional Gender Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, despite the structural and emerging challenges facing the region.

There they committed, among other things, to “urgently accelerate efforts to overcome the four structural nodes of gender inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, namely, socioeconomic inequality and the persistence of poverty, cultural patterns discriminatory and violent patriarchal practices and the predominance of the culture of privilege, the sexual division of labor and the unjust social organization of care, and the concentration of power and hierarchical relations in the public sphere.

The current Board of Directors, elected during the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Buenos Aires, 2022), is headed by Argentina, in the Presidency, and Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay and Venezuela , in the Vice Presidencies.

The meeting was attended by 27 government delegations (17 from Latin America and 6 from the Caribbean, plus Spain, the United States, Canada and Norway), representatives of 10 organizations of the United Nations System and other intergovernmental and cooperation organizations, and more of 200 representatives of civil society. In total about 350 people participated.