ABOUT

Who we are

Officials

Mission

Functions

Permanent Secretariat Staff

 

WHO WE ARE

The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), a Specialized Organization of the Organization of American States, is the principal forum for generating hemispheric policy to advance women's rights and gender equality. Established in 1928 at the Sixth International Conference of American States (Havana, Cuba),  the CIM was the first official intergovernmental agency in the world created expressly to ensure recognition of the civil and political rights of women. As such, it has played a crucial role in making the participation and support of women a legitimate and indispensable part of governance and international consensus building in the Americas.

The CIM is made up of 34 Principal Delegates, one for each member state, who are designated by their respective governments. The Assembly of Delegates, held every two years, is the CIM’s highest authority. It establishes the CIM’s policies and Plan of Action for the biennium and elects a seven-member Executive Committee.

Through its delegates, the CIM provides support and recognition to national women's movements—at governmental level, with NGOs, and with grassroots organizations. Similarly, the existence of the CIM, with its influential role within the OAS, represents support for women's movements throughout the Americas and helps to foster inter-American cooperation.

 

OFFICIALS 2006-2008

 

President:      Jacqui Quinn-Leandro  (Antigua and Barbuda)

Vice-President:  Martha Vásquez Zawadzky (Colombia)

Executive Committee Members:

            Brazil:           Nilcéa Freire
            Guatemala:  Maria Gabriela Núñez Pérez
            Haiti:            Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue
            Peru:            Virginia Borra Toledo
            Uruguay:      Carmen Beramendi

Executive Secretary:      Carmen Lomellin

MISSION

To promote and protect women's rights, and to support the member states in their efforts to ensure full exercise of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights that will make possible equal participation by women and men in all aspects of society, so that women and men will share, fully and equally, both the benefits of development and responsibility for the future.

1. To identify through appropriate means the areas in which it is necessary to step up the integral participation of women in the economic, political, social, and cultural development of peoples
   

2. To formulate strategies aimed at transforming the roles of and relationship between, women and men in all spheres of public     and private life to those of two beings of equal worth, equally responsible for the fate of humanity;
   

3. To propose solutions and to urge the governments to take all appropriate measures to remove barriers to full and equal participation by women in civil, economic, social, cultural, and political spheres.
   

4. To promote the mobilization, training, and organization of women  to achieve equal participation in civil, political, economic, social, and cultural leadership positions, and to propose that, in the process of planning, organizing, and executing development programs, they be provided at all times with the means necessary to bring about such participation and representation.
   

5. To promote access by women and girls to education and training programs, paying particular attention to the situation of women in the labor force and in disadvantaged sectors;
   

6. To urge the governments to comply with provisions adopted by specialized inter-American or international conferences, the  General Assembly of the Organization of American States, and    the Inter-American Commission of Women that are designed to achieve gender equity;
   

7. To serve as an advisory body to the Organization of American States and its organs in all matters related to the women of       the hemisphere and in any other matters on which they may consult it;
   

8. To establish close ties of cooperation with those inter-American organizations, world organizations and public and private agencies whose activities affect women;                          

9. To report regularly to the General Assembly of the Organization     of American States on the principal activities of the Commission, and
   

10. To report to the General Assembly of the Organization of   American States on all aspects of the status of women in the Hemisphere,  on progress made in this field and on problems that ought to be considered, and to submit to the governments of the member states recommendations aimed at solving problems related to women's status in the countries of the region.
    

11. To promote the adoption or adaptation of the necessary             legal measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

              © 2007 Organization of American States.

  Conditions and disclaimer