More Latin American Women in Politics: Civil Society, Governments, and the United Nations Achieve Collaborative Agreements

Thursday 01 March 2007, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic -- Under the auspices of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW), various civil society organizations and State offices for women and gender agreed to work together to promote increased political participation of women in 10 Latin American countries.
PRESS RELEASE For immediate releaseThursday 01 March 2007More Latin American women in politics: civil society, governments and the United Nations achieve collaborative agreementsSanto Domingo, Dominican Republic -- Under the auspices of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW), various civil society organizations and State offices for women and gender agreed to work together to promote increased political participation of women in 10 Latin American countries.Today marks the conclusion of a series of discussion fora in Central America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama) and the Andean region (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia), in which more than 300 representatives of political parties, State offices for women and gender, NGOs, local governments and UN agencies brought together differing viewpoints in order to establish a common agenda for action.In Ecuador, one participant emphasized that “there are few opportunities like this to share our experiences with the political parties and the State. Until now, in politics, women only served to collect votes, get the coffee and applaud their male colleagues. Today we stop being political objects and become political subjects.”These two-day national forums have allowed for the formulation of a common agenda that will facilitate women’s political participation and the inclusion of their priorities and interests in municipal plans and programmes. According to data released today by UN-INSTRAW, Latin American women hold only 5.3% of mayoral posts in Latin America, while they occupy 16% of all municipal positions and 20.2% of parliamentary posts.During these discussion workshops, organized in collaboration with State offices for women and gender, UN-INSTRAW also shared the results of the studies carried out last year with financial support from the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI). This UN-INSTRAW research reveals that one of the main demands from representatives of various sectors is a greater articulation of the institutions and organizations working in gender and governance issues.Although public opinion in Latin America is primarily in favor of an increase in the number of women in political positions, women, who represent more than 50% of the Latin American population, continue to be underrepresented in all levels of political decision-making, especially at the local level.“In the local sphere, there is a worrying paradox,” commented UN-INSTRAW Director Carmen Moreno. “The municipality is the space where women participate most in economic, social and cultural life. But also it is where few occupy political positions,” continued the United Nations official.As a space for dialogue, the discussion forum in Colombia, for example, resulted in a public commitment by Colombian political parties to the reactivation of the 2005 pact for the effective inclusion of women in politics. In Ecuador, a roundtable was created to facilitate dialogue between the National Council of Women (CONAMU) and women’s organizations at both the national and municipal levels.In Costa Rica, with the support of the Institute for Costa Rican Women, it was decided to create a network of municipal women, which has never before existed in this Central American country. In Honduras, the need for a mapping and wide diffusion in the media of best practices, as well as the political education of women in municipal management were identified as priority areas of work.“Increasing the presence and the tenure of women in political positions can not be only the task of women,” said Carmen Moreno, director of UN-INSTRAW. “Men that see it as such commit a grave error that puts our democratic regimes in danger. A democracy that does not reflect the interests and concerns of half of its citizens is not a true democracy.”In the coming months, some of the organizations in Central America and the Andean Region will participate in capacity-building processes with the aim of bridging the gap between men’s and women’s political participation, especially at the municipal level. These discussion fora were organized as part of a 3-year regional project, financed by AECI and executed by UN-INSTRAW, which seeks to foment greater female political participation in local government through research, capacity-building and the formulation of public policies.For more details on the project, please visit http://www.un-instraw.org/en/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1063