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OAS Inter-American Commission of Women Co-Hosts Second Hemispheric Forum in Santo Domingo

The Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of American States (OAS) will co-host the Second Hemispheric Forum "Women's Full Citizenship for Democracy", which will be held in Santo Domingo from July 18 to 21, and aims to promote equal participation of women in lives of the countries of the Americas.

This Second Hemispheric Forum seeks to identify and promote the political and state reforms in Latin America and the Caribbean needed to expedite the exercise of women’s full citizenship, through stimulating synergies that seek to achieve consensus and joint activities between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, networks of women’s organizations, human rights organizations, and ombudsmen.

The defense of the political role of women is covered explicitly in the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which states that Member States of the OAS should promote "the full and equal participation of women in the political structures of their countries as a fundamental element of the promotion and exercise of democratic culture." The inclusion of this article acknowledges the existence of a significant gap in participation, representation and leadership of women in the democratic systems in the region, and the need to eliminate this gap as a matter of human rights and good governance.

The Forum will be co-hosted by the CIM, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA International) and UN Women, and has the support of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECI). The event's agenda is available here.

The expected outcomes of the Second Hemispheric Forum include: a) recommendations on priorities, strategies and opportunities for incidence in the reform and modernization processes of the governmental branches, political parties and electoral institutions; b) exchanged experiences on strategies, outcomes and lessons learned on political reform and modernization of the state from a gender mainstreaming and women's rights perspective, and c) the creation of spaces for pluralistic dialogue, cooperation among states and promoting synergies between governmental branches, ombudsmen, women’s organizations/networks and civil society.

The participants in the Second Hemispheric Forum will include the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez Reyna, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller, and the First Vice-President of Peru, Marisol Espinosa Cruz, among others.

In addition, participants will include the ministers and directors of the National Machineries for the Advancement of Women, the Presidents of the Commissions for Gender Equality of the parliaments of the region; parliamentarians; judges/ministers of the Supreme and Electoral Courts; public defenders and women’s rights advocates from Latin America and Caribbean; women's networks and organizations, representatives of international organizations, the diplomatic corps accredited to the Dominican Republic and special guests of the Dominican government.

In the Americas, women hold an average of 22.8 percent of positions in national legislatures, 29 percent of posts in ministerial offices, 7 percent of the municipalities, and 46.5 percent of membership of political parties, although only 19 percent are leadership positions.

The First Hemispheric Forum, entitled "Women's Leadership for a Citizens' Democracy" was held at OAS headquarters in Washington DC, in early April 2011. The Secretary General was asked to give the opening speech of the forum, which was attended by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar; the former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Sheila Copps; the Mayor of Lima, Peru, Susana Villarán; the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women of the IACHR, Luz Patricia Mejía; and the former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition in St. Lucia, Kenny D. Anthony, among others. More information on the First Hemispheric Forum is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-254/12