FIRST MINISTERIAL MEETING

ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN

27 - 28 April, 2000

Washington, D.C.

INTEGRATING A GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN
THE SUMMITS OF THE AMERICAS

(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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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".
  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. To request the OAS General Assembly to designate the necessary resources to the CIM to carry out the implementation of these mandates.

[Women/Ministerial-27-04-00/tracker.htm][Women/Ministerial-27-04-00/tracker.htm]