09 September 2005

U.N. Conference on Status of Women in Americas Held in Argentina

Meeting promotes gender equality, women's legal and social protections

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Helping women in the Western Hemisphere achieve better social protection measures, along with the political dimensions of inequalities between men and women, were among the topics discussed at a United Nations-sponsored September 7-8 conference on women in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In a September 7 statement, the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said representatives from more than 14 countries and 11 agencies within the U.N. system participated in the meeting, held in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata.  That city will also be the site for the November 4-5 Summit of the Americas.

ECLAC official Marta Maurás said at the meeting's opening session that social protection and pension schemes in the Americas, along with emergency employment programs, unemployment insurance, and poverty relief programs, show "unequivocal signs" of affecting men and women differently.

"Today we have evidence of the many ways that discrimination [against women] in the labor force is reflected in pension systems," said Maurás, who heads an ECLAC office dealing with women's issues.  She added that "the fact that these [systems] are based on individual saving and have eliminated all forms of solidarity between generations has left adult and elderly women less protected, precisely because they are the ones who have been dedicated to looking after the family."

ECLAC said the meeting, titled "The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean," is the region's most important intergovernmental forum for analyzing public policies from a gender perspective.  ECLAC said the meeting monitored progress of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, and the 2004 Ninth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Mexico City. 

During the meeting in Mar del Plata, an ECLAC report was presented called The Millennium Development Goals: A Latin American and Caribbean Perspective, which included an examination of the region's progress through 2005 toward overcoming poverty and promoting equality between the sexes.  In addition, the report will be presented at the U.N. General Assembly summit in New York where world leaders will evaluate, among other issues, progress being made toward overcoming gender bias and world poverty. (See related article.)

At the 2004 Special Summit of the Americas, held in Monterrey, Mexico, President Bush and the 33 other democratically elected leaders of the region reiterated their commitment to promoting gender equality in the Western Hemisphere.  In a declaration released following the Summit, the leaders said that the "full and equal participation" of women in society is "fundamental for the reduction of poverty, the promotion of economic and social prosperity, and for people-centered sustainable development."

The Monterrey Declaration is available at the Free Trade Area of Americas Web site.

 The Millennium Development Goals: a Latin American and Caribbean perspective is available at the ECLAC Web site, as is Maurás' speech (in Spanish) at the September 7-8 conference on women.

Roads Toward Gender Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean (PDF, 100 pages), a publication from 2004’s Ninth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, is available at ECLAC Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)