(Resolution adopted at the fourth plenary session
held on April 28,2000)
THE MEETING OF MINISTERS OR OF THE HIGHEST-RANKING
AUTHORITIES
RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN IN THE MEMBER
STATES,
CONSIDERING that the countries of the Hemisphere
have pledged to combat all forms of discrimination and to promote equal
rights and opportunities for men and women, for which measures must be
taken in the area of gender equality;
RECOGNIZING the progress made by the Fourth World
Conference on Women and the organs of the United Nations on defining the
concept of gender perspective, which is "a strategy for making
women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of
the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and
programs in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and
men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated";
CONSIDERING resolutions AG/RES. 1534 (XXVIII-O/98)
and AG/RES. 1659 (XXIX-O/99), "Support for and Follow-up to the
Summits of the Americas," whereby the General Assembly instructs the
organs, agencies, and entities of the inter-American system to give top
priority to carrying out the initiatives assigned to them pursuant to the
mandates of the Summits of the Americas and to provide regular progress
reports on their implementation;
HAVING SEEN resolution AG/RES. 1625 (XXIX-O/99),
"Status of Women in the Americas and Strengthening and Modernization
of the Inter-American Commission of Women," which calls a meeting of
ministers or of the highest-ranking authorities responsible for the
advancement of women in the member states and requests the Inter-American
Commission of Women (CIM), acting as coordinator for the aforementioned
meeting, to prepare a draft agenda that will include approval of the Draft
Inter-American Program on the Promotion of Women's Rights and Gender
Equity and consideration of the commitments adopted by the Summit of the
Americas;
CONSIDERING that the Draft Inter-American Program
on the Promotion of Women's Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality is
a political instrument of paramount importance, the objectives of which
are among others, to 1) achieve legal equality and equal opportunity for
women and men; and, 2) to systematically integrate a gender perspective in
all organs, organizations and entities of the Organization of American
States;
TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Plan of Action of the First
Summit of the Americas, held in Miami in December 1994, and of the Second
Summit of the Americas, held in Santiago in April 1998, adopted by the
Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere, which express the need
to: (a) strengthen policies and programs that improve and broaden the
participation of women in all spheres of political, social, and economic
life; (b) strengthen and establish, where they do not exist, national
mechanisms and governmental organs focused on gender equality and equality
of opportunities for women and men, by providing them with adequate and
timely financial resources; (c) include a gender focus in cooperation and
development planning projects; and (d) further strengthen the CIM; and;
RECALLING that the Plan of Action of the Second
Summit of the Americas instructs our governments to implement and follow
up on the commitments regarding the status of women agreed to at the
Summit of the Americas, with the support of the CIM, in collaboration with
civil society, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the
World Bank, and other international cooperation entities,
RESOLVES:
- To urge the participating countries of the Third Summit of the
Americas to make a strong commitment to take concrete action to
integrate a gender perspective in the Political Declaration and the
Plan of Action and to reaffirm their political commitment to ensure
gender equity and equality and the need for follow-up and
accountability in the implementation of gender mainstreaming in the
Summit Plan of Action.
- To encourage also the inclusion in the next Summit Plan of Action,
of a specific section related to women's issues within
"democracy and human rights".
-
To encourage the governments to consider the
recommendations of the Inter-American Commission of Women, as technical
advisor on women, in the process of preparation of the Political
Declaration and the Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas,
taking into account the objectives of the Inter-American Program on the
Promotion of Women's Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality.
-
To recommend the integration of a gender perspective
in the follow-up activities of the mandates of the Summit of the Americas,
in particular, the Ministerial Meetings.
-
To invite the OAS General Assembly to approve the
holding of ministerial meetings on women every four years, with the
support of the CIM Assembly of Delegates, in order to contribute to the
preparation and follow up of the plans of action that might be adopted by
the Summits of the Americas, bearing in mind the Inter-American Program on
the Promotion of Women's Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality.
-
To request the OAS General Assembly to disseminate
this resolution to all the organs and agencies of the inter-American
system, to ensure that it is taken into account in the preparation and
implementation of their plans and programs.
-
To recommend the use of the Gender Indicator System,
which was first used within the framework of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), as one of the
strategies for following up on the commitments of the Summits of the
Americas.
-
To request the OAS General Assembly to designate the
necessary resources to the CIM to carry out the implementation of these
mandates.