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Defending Women’s Rights |
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“We reiterate that the empowerment of women, their full and equal participation in the development of our societies, and their equal opportunities to exercise leadership are fundamental for the reduction of poverty, the promotion of economic and social prosperity, and for people-centered sustainable development.”
Declaration of Nuevo León Special Summit of the Americas, January 2004
Since its creation in 1928, the OAS Inter-American Commission of Women (known by its Spanish acronym, CIM) has advanced a range of issues to improve the status of women and promote gender equality throughout the Americas. One of its key achievements has been the development of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women. The landmark treaty was adopted in 1994 by the OAS General Assembly in Belém do Pará, Brazil, and has been ratified by 31 OAS member states.
In the decade since it took effect, the Belém do Pará Convention has raised awareness that violence against women is a violation of human rights and has led to changes in laws and policies; however, the treaty’s goals have yet to be fully realized. That was the conclusion the Inter-American Commission of Women reached based on a series of studies and sub-regional meetings on the treaty’s implementation. As a result, the states that have ratified the Belém do Pará Convention decided to develop a follow-up mechanism to systematically evaluate its implementation in their countries.
In July 2004, a meeting of experts drafted a statute creating the follow-up mechanism, which then went through a process of consultation. In October 2004 the OAS Secretary General, in coordination with the CIM, convened a Conference of States Parties, which formally adopted the mechanism. The mechanism’s Committee of Experts met for the first time from August 22 to 24 of this year to begin evaluating how the countries are complying with the treaty and how far they have come in preventing and punishing violence against women. The OAS, through the CIM, is the technical secretariat of the follow-up mechanism.
Another area of CIM concern is the trafficking of women and children for purposes of exploitation. The CIM began to study the problem in 1999 and now has an Anti-Trafficking Coordinator to help provide technical assistance to member states and disseminate information to governments and civil society. The CIM has worked in partnership on this issue with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Inter-American Children’s Institute, universities and nongovernmental organizations in several countries. The OAS member states have adopted resolutions aimed at strengthening hemispheric cooperation in combating this crime, most recently at the 2005 General Assembly held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The CIM has also given priority to a comprehensive program that seeks to incorporate gender equity and equality into all programs and policies that affect people's lives. The Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women's Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality came out of the first-ever meeting of government ministers and other senior officials who formulate policies on the advancement of women, held in April 2000 at the OAS. The Inter-American Program was formally adopted by the 2000 OAS General Assembly and endorsed by the hemisphere's leaders at the Third Summit of the Americas. The heads of state and government committed themselves to promoting gender equality and agreed to "integrate a gender perspective" at the national and international level, "to ensure that women's experiences and gender equality are an integral dimension of the design, implementation and evaluation of government and inter-American policies and programs in all spheres." The region's leaders reaffirmed this commitment at the Special Summit of the Americas, held in Monterrey, Mexico, in January 2004.
The second ministerial meeting on the advancement of women – held at OAS headquarters on April 2004 – called for enhanced efforts to integrate a gender perspective into every aspect of the hemispheric agenda, from human rights to trade policy. The ministerial meeting adopted a series of recommendations to foster gender mainstreaming in judicial systems, so that these will be more responsive to such problems as domestic violence and trafficking in persons. The CIM presented these proposals to the Fifth Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General, which included the proposals in its Plan of Action.
The CIM has presented recommendations to ministerial conferences on labor, education, and science and technology. Subsequently, follow-up meetings were held with government and civil society experts to draft lines of action and strategies to help implement the recommendations.
The idea is not to focus solely on women, but to evaluate policies and programs taking into consideration they may have different impacts on women and men, and that women often suffer discrimination based on gender. Whether the issue is designing a school curriculum, planning a public-health campaign or attracting new businesses to a community, the challenge is to find ways to ensure that women and men can derive equal benefit.
The CIM is also applying a gender perspective to peace and security issues. In cooperation with the OAS Department of Political and Democratic Affairs and Women Waging Peace, a nongovernmental organization, it is developing a training program on gender, conflict and peace. The first training seminar, for the Andean region, took place in Lima, Peru, in October. This project is being financed with grants from Hunt Alternatives Fund and the government of China.
As part of an effort to implement the Inter-American Program throughout the inter-American system, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) financed a training program for 200 staff members in the OAS General Secretariat. This program, designed to incorporate a gender perspective into all OAS programs and policies, surpassed expectations, and a second phase – also financed by CIDA – will begin later this year. The CIM provides advisory support to the units and offices of the OAS as part of this initiative.
The CIM has also advised the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG) on gender-related issues to ensure that a gender perspective is integrated into the documents of the Fourth Summit of the Americas.
Last updated: October 2005