Caribbean and Latin American countries at XIV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean approve the Santiago Commitment to accelerate actions to realise gender equality.

Caribbean Government, NGO and UN delegates at the XIV Regional Conference on Women with (centre) ECLAC Executive Secretary Alicia Barcena. Photo: ECLAC/Carlos Vera.

Caribbean and Latin American countries participating in the XIV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean have approved the Santiago Commitment to accelerate actions to realise gender equality.

“The reality faced by our region today challenges and invites us to advance towards the end of inequalities with much more determination, because we are very clear about what we want: we want equality, that nothing be done about us, without us. We want a world without femicide, without violence, with equality in terms of wages and other economic matters,” Alicia Bárcena, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said during the conference’s closing session.

Regional Director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, María-Noel Vaeza said: “The Santiago Commitment, which is the outcome of this Conference, must be the roadmap that enables the region to recognize and fulfill the commitments that countries made to women and girls 25 years ago in Beijing, so as to move forward together on consolidating the Gender Agenda.”