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The political involvement
of women in Latin America and the Carribean has gradually increased
over the past ten years. Women account for 15% of executive power
and 13 to 14% of legislative power, with 11 countries having a law
on quotas. At local level, 5% of the total number of municipalities
are led by women. This progress should be celebrated, but it is
not enough: in Latin America and the Caribbean we do not want these
minimum achievements to set the standard, what we really want is
equal conditions to be established for involvement in politics and
society.
Latin American women
made a big contribution to building democracy, particularly during
the wars and the struggle against dictatorships, but this did not
generally translate into women achieving positions of power. In
this respect, Chile is attracting the attention of the whole world
by having a woman president, Michelle Bachelet, and a government
with equal numbers of male and female ministers and deputy ministers
as well as heads of services throughout the country. Michelle Bachelet
is furthermore a socialist, a member of the family of the Socialist
International. However, Socialist International Women (SIW) wants
the exception to become the rule, it wants governments with equal
numbers of women and men to spread across the entire region because,
despite everything, both in Chile and many other countries, achieving
the involvement of more women in parliament, governments, municipalities
and parties has yet to be accomplished.
In order to ensure an
equal distribution of women and men in positions of power, we need
affirmative action like the quota system. It is a question of democratic
principles: there are shortcomings in representation, which is why
we need to introduce mechanisms to correct them.
At the same time, progress
towards more democratic and fair societies, requires a transformation
of social, economic and political structures. For this we need tools
to achieve equal opportunities where the starting conditions are
not the same. We therefore need public policies aimed at actively
promoting women, to drive and ensure their integration in the world
of work, and in the various social and political contexts, in conditions
of equality and free of sexual harassment and discrimination. These
public policies need to include a gender dimension and must not
only be directed at women. Women will not achieve real equality
through policies designed only for them. These public policies must
come within the framework of inclusive and equitable models of sustainable
development.
In order to achieve
governability we need democratic and stable institutions and good
relations between the government and society. An inclusive society
in which women play an active role would speed up this process.
Socialist International
Women therefore:
supports the proposal
made by President Michelle Bachelet to set up a Latin American Equal
Opportunities Alliance to support women in achieving their equality
objectives, with the ultimate aim of creating a more friendly region
for all its women and for all its men and
expresses its
appreciation of the commitment of the President to ending violence
against women, promoting sexual and reproductive rights among young
people, ending the salary gap between women and men and increasing
the level of inclusion of women in the labour market.
Furthermore, Socialist
International Women appeals to governments in the region, particularly
those led by parties belonging to the Socialist International:
to sign and ratify,
as soon as possible, the Optional Protocol of the Convention on
the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
as well as all those international and regional treaties, agreements
and pacts ;
to assert the
rights of women at work, in the family, in access to public services,
health, education, housing, and thus help to eliminate violence
against women;
to adopt measures
to ensure the representation of women at all levels of government
and in political parties;
to guarantee that
at international, regional and local level, sexual and reproductive
rights are fully applicable at every stage of a woman's life. In
this respect SIW condemns the recent prohibition of abortion for
medical reasons in Nicaragua considering it a step backwards in
women's rights and therefore asks Nicaragua to reconsider its position
immediately;
to promote public
policies for migrant women, based on an international spirit of
solidarity so that these women are recognised as individuals with
economic, political, social and cultural rights;
to promote, in
the context of electoral reforms, affirmative action to ensure the
balanced participation of women and men in decision - making, both
in institutions and in political parties, which is vital in developing
democratic governability.
Finally, achieving equal
opportunities for women and men is not the responsibility of women
alone but also of democratic societies and political parties sensitive
to cultural change and determined to achieve social justice, equality
and solidarity with the view to improve the quality of our democracies
and to make our economic and social development more effective.
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