UN Women is actively involved in the preparation and celebration of the XIII Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) that unites representatives of governments in the LAC region to discuss the implementation of the international and regional agreements on gender equality, and to promote the mainstreaming of gender in public policies in order to move towards the empowerment of women.

The XIII Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will take place from October 25 -28, 2016 in Montevideo, Uruguay under the title: "Gender equality, women’s autonomy and sustainable development". It is organized by the Government of Uruguay and ECLAC and supported by UN Women.

As a result of this important event it is expected to adopt the Strategy of Montevideo with the aim to support the implementation of the of States commitments on gender equality and women's empowerment in the context of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

For this conference, UN Women has participated in three subregional preparatory meetings to ensure that the priority issues of its mandate and work areas are set out in the Strategy Montevideo including mainstreaming gender equality in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (ODS).

The Government of Uruguay and ECLAC have approved the holding of 16 parallel events taking place during the course of the Conference. UN Women organized four of them:

1. Presentation “Towards a transformation of economies to promote the economic rights of women”.
2. Statistics with Gender Perspective
3. Towards Parity Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean
4. New evidence on the eradication of violence against women from: 7 years of the UNiTE campaign in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Likewise, UN Women will contribute in the following five:

1. Economic autonomy of Afro-descendant women.
2. The equality of women and public policy: transforming the state for inclusion in the new agenda.
3. ISOQUITO.
4. Economic empowerment of women in Latin America.
5. Gender inequality and violence, determinants of the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV.

Access the full list of side events.

Prior to the Conference, UN Women also gives supports for the organization of the Civil Society Feminist Forum "Magaly Pineda", in which it is expected that representatives of movements and women's organizations will agree on their priorities and concerns in implementing the States commitments on gender equality.

As a result of the Forum, representatives are expected to adopt a declaration to be presented during the first day of the Conference to government’s representatives of the region, in order to influence further governmental discussions and agreements.

Prior to the Conference and under the agreement signed between UN Women and Cotidiano Mujer, will also be held together with the civil society, workshops on Isoquito and Isomontevideo as a way to show the instrument, its methodology and use as a monitoring and advocacy tool.

UN Women hopes that the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will serve to consolidate the work of UN Women in Uruguay and strengthen partnerships with the Government of this country, particularly with the National Institute for Women (INMUJERES) that will occupy the presidency of the Board of the XIV Regional Conference, to enable an open dialogue, and promote support and technical assistance of UN Women to the Government over the next three years that will preside over the Bureau.