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FINAL REPORT ON THE MEETING OF MINISTERS OR OF THE HIGHEST-RANKING AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN IN THE MEMBER STATES Washington, D.C., April 27-28, 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTIONII. PARTICIPANTS III. PROCEEDINGS
The Meeting of Ministers or of the Highest-Ranking Authorities Responsible for the Advancement of Women in the Member States, convened by the OAS General Assembly and organized by the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), was held in Washington, D.C. on April 27 and 28, 2000. The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) transmitted the convocation to the governments of the member states in fulfillment of resolution AG/RES. 1625 (XXIX-O/99), "Status of Women in the Americas and Strengthening and Modernization of the Inter-American Commission of Women." The CIM was the event coordinator. Approximately 200 people attended the meeting. The heads of delegation included one vice president, secretaries of state, ministers, ambassadors, one First Lady, and principal delegates to the CIM, among others. Representatives of observer countries, regional and international agencies, and nongovernmental organizations also participated, as well as advisors emeritus of the CIM and officials from the OAS and the Permanent Missions to the OAS. The list of participants is published in document CIM/MINIS/doc.11/00 (Appendix IV). During the meeting, one inaugural session, four plenary sessions, and one closing session were held. Below are details on those sessions. The Inaugural Session began at 9:30 a.m. on April 27, 2000. César Gaviria, Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Ambassador Marcelo Ostria Trigo, Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the OAS, Dr. María Eugenia Brizuela de Avila, Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, and Dr. Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State of the United States all took the floor. The following persons also spoke the President of the CIM, Ms. Dulce María Sauri Riancho, by video, and the Hon. Indranie Chandarpal, Vice President of the CIM. The remarks delivered are published in documents CIM/MINIS/doc.13/00, CIM/MINIS/ doc.17/00, CIM/MINIS/doc.14/00 CIM/MINIS/doc.15/00, CIM/MINIS/doc.9/00, and CIM/MINIS/ doc.12/00, respectively. The first plenary session began at 11:30 a.m., on April 27, 2000, in the Bolívar Room. In the absence of the President of the CIM, the Vice President, the Hon. Indranie Chandarpal, Principal Delegate of Guyana, chaired the meeting, pursuant to Article 26 of the Regulations of the CIM and Article 9 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of Delegates of the CIM. After opening the session, the Chair offered the floor to the First Lady of Venezuela, Mrs. Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez, Head of the Delegation of that country. Her remarks are published in document CIM/MINIS/doc.16/00. It was decided to proceed following the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of Delegates of the CIM in all applicable matters, bearing in mind the special characteristics of the meeting.
Three Vice Chairs and one Rapporteur were elected as follows: First Vice Chair, the Director of the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, Mrs. Irasema Garza; Second Vice Chair, the Director General of Foreign Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, Mrs. Marisol Argueta; and Third Vice Chair, the Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, and Women's Affairs of Grenada, Mrs. Brenda Hood. The Executive Director of the National Council on Women of Ecuador, Mrs. Lola Villaquirán, was elected Rapporteur.
The Committee on Credentials was composed of the delegations of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Suriname. The Committee's report was published as document CIM/MINIS/doc.10/00 (Appendix II). The Style Committee was made up of the delegations of Mexico, Jamaica, Canada, and Brazil.
The meeting approved the following agenda, published in document CIM/MINIS/doc.2/00 rev. 1:
2. Summit of the Americas:
The draft schedule of activities, published in document CIM/MINIS/doc.6/00 rev.1, was also approved without changes.
It was decided to consider the items in plenary sessions to facilitate dialogue and the exchange of the opinions of all the participants. When necessary, informal working groups were established to reach a consensus.
Pursuant to Article 7 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of Delegates, the following order of precedence was established by lot:
The President called the meeting to order and opened up the floor to discuss item one on the agenda, the "Draft Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women's Rights and Gender Equity" (CIM/MINIS/doc.3/00). The delegations voiced their observations and comments. Since there was not a consensus on the program title, a working group was formed. The delegations adopted the group's proposal to call it the "Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women's Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality." There was an exhaustive review of the content of the document. The Secretariat took note of the proposed changes, and the version that was agreed upon was published as document CIM/MINIS/doc.3/00 rev.2 (Appendix I).
The chair of the meeting opened the third plenary session and offered the floor to the participants to discuss item two on the agenda, "Summit of the Americas: Follow-up and Fulfillment of the Commitments of the Second Summit of the Americas and Proposals for the Third Summit of the Americas." The delegations reported on the progress made in their countries with regard to the follow-up and fulfillment of the commitments of the Second Summit of the Americas and contributed valuable information about their experiences. There was an intense exchange of ideas on proposals for the Third Summit of the Americas. It was agreed that the gender perspective must be incorporated in the Declaration of Principles and throughout the Plan of Action, and it was also proposed that basic problems affecting women such as poverty, violence, and health be mentioned separately. It was decided to propose that the next Plan of Action of the Summit of the Americas place the section on women under "Democracy and Human Rights" as opposed to "Eradication of Poverty and Discrimination." The role of national mechanisms in following up on the commitments of the Summit was also mentioned, as well as the need to strengthen their ties to the CIM. The delegations identified problems shared by all the member states and expressed their firm commitment to continue to work together to achieve gender equity and equality in the Hemisphere, respecting the countries' differences. The delegations agreed that the dialogue of Ministers was essential in order to move forward on this topic and that it was important to establish mechanisms to continue that dialogue. The President stressed that the participants, as the officials responsible for policies on gender, must take the initiative not only in preparing and implementing programs and measures to achieve equality, but also engage in lobbying. Mrs. Amalia Frech Alemán, Head of the Delegation of Nicaragua, the coordinating country on the topic of women for the Summits process, thanked the participants for their contributions and observations, and pointed out that they will be very useful in preparing the document to be presented at the Third Summit. At the close of the session, the Committee on Credentials presented its report and indicated that all 33 participating countries had duly presented their credentials (CIM/MINIS/doc.10/00). he President called the fourth plenary session to order. A discussion of the three draft resolutions followed: "Approval and Implementation of the Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality," "Integrating a Gender Perspective in the Summits of the Americas," and "Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, Convention of 'Belém do Pará'," each of which contains proposals for action. Following an extensive exchange of ideas, the draft resolutions were approved by consensus, with the observations made. The resolutions are published in documents CIM/MINIS/doc.19/00 rev. 1, CIM/MINIS/doc.21/00 rev. 1, and CIM/MINIS/doc.20/00 rev. 1, respectively (Appendix I). The Rapporteur, Mrs. Lola Villaquiran, then presented her report, which is published as document CIM/MINIS/doc.18/00. The closing session was held at 5:30 p.m. on April 28. The Vice-President of the CIM, Hon. Indranie Chandarpal took the floor and adjourned the meeting.
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© 2007 Organization of American States. |
