SANTIAGO de CHILE, 21 June 2010: Heads of State, government ministers, representatives of international organizations and civil society will gather from 13 to 16 July in Brasilia, Brazil, for the Eleventh Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean.
This is the most important intergovernmental forum in the region for the analysis of public policies for gender equality. Over 800 people are expected to attend.
The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) which is convened every three years. Its main objectives are to serve as a forum of discussion on gender issues, present public policy recommendations and assess the compliance of regional agreements and plans under the perspective of women’s needs.
The Eleventh Conference will focus on the question “What kind of State? What kind of equality?”. ECLAC will present a position paper which will examine the achievements and challenges of governments in the region on the issue of gender equality, in light of the interplay between the State, the market and families, that together may establish the conditions in which social and gender hierarchies are changed or perpetuated.
What kind of State for what kind of equality? is the question that the document poses and tries answer from the perspective of women’s human rights, the parameter set by the community of nations for driving and measuring progress towards gender equality.
The Executive Secretary of ECLAC Alicia Bárcena will present the main working document during a high-level panel and former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet will deliver a master lecture.
Five work sessions will be held from 14-15 July in which more than 40 panelists will address the main issues examined in the document:
Employment, family responsibilities and socio-cultural obstacles to gender equality in the economy
Development policies and women’s time
Women’s economic empowerment: access to technologies and to productive and financial assets
With the crisis over, what’s next?
Women’s economic empowerment: the most vulnerable groups
An Ad hoc meeting on Haiti and Chile titled “(Re)building equality” will be held on 15 July.
The Conference will conclude on Friday, 16 July, with the presentation of the Consensus of Brasilia, a document containing the agreements and commitments taken on by governments and which will set the course of the future agenda.
