The Permanent Mission of Uruguay and DAWN co-sponsored a side event at the 49th session of UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD49) on the 14th of April 2016. The event discussed “Meeting the SRHR of all people: Advancing the Montevideo Consensus Agenda”.

It addressed the implementation challenges and explored how advances can be made to respect, protect and fulfill sexual and reproductive rights as a core component of human rights with reference to the Montevideo Consensus adopted by the governments of the Latin America and Caribbean region at the First Regional Conference on Population in August 2013 in Montevideo Uruguay.

The panelists also discussed the Operational guide to facilitate the implementation and monitoring of the Montevideo Consensus which was developed in October 2015, at the Second Regional Conference held in Mexico City.

The event was chaired by Kumudini Samuel, Executive Committee member of DAWN and comprised of a panel of four speakers: Cecilia Stapff from the Uruguay official delegation; Oriana Lopez, deputy director of “Balance” and member of RESURJ, and a member of Mexican delegation to CPD49; Julia Terborg, an official delegate from Suriname delegation at CPD, a sociologist and a SRHR activist in particular in the area of monitoring the PoA of the ICPD and a longstanding member of the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network; and DAWN executive committee member Cai Yiping from China.

The panel generated a rich discussion on how to strengthen the Montevideo Consensus in the region and how to continue to develop the Operative Guidelines, particularly indicators. There was also a call for the continued strong engagement of feminists and CSOs in the rebates around the Operative Guidelines and indicators and a strong commitment from CSOs and feminists to continue to work together in the region to further the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus. ~