Event co-hosted by Uruguay, UN Women and Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
Wednesday, March 16th, from 1.15 to 2.30 p.m., CR A, UNHQ, New York

The Post 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the central importance of gender equality and the empowerment of women to move towards sustainable and equitable patterns of development.

In the follow up of the Programme of Action of Population and Development, Latin America and the Caribbean have expressed through the Montevideo Consensus, a firm commitment of respect and promotion of women’s human rights, recognizing them as one of the cornerstone of sustainable development.

The Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development marked important progress as it conceives that sustainable development is a reachable objective through the free and full exercise of all human rights of all people. This implied reaffirming the centrality of sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality, a social organization of just care, the eradication of violence against women and girls, and the elimination of the structural inequalities for reasons based on gender, race and ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status and others in the construction of patterns of sustainable development in the region.

Therefore, the effective and full implementation of the Montevideo Consensus will substantially contribute to the fulfillment of the main international instruments of promotion and respect of women’s human rights: the Sustainable Development Goals, the Beijing Platform for Action, the Programme of Action of Population and Development and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, among others.

Countries of the region have an operational guide, as a tool for action for the implementation and follow up of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, which was adopted at the Second Regional Conference on Population and Development in October 2015. It is a technical instrument, in which specific guidelines for the implementation of priority measures of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development are given and provides relevant inputs for the monitoring of the abovementioned implementation, both nationally and regionally.

This side event will concentrate on the importance of the Montevideo Consensus and its’ Operative Guide toward its implementation, follow-up and accountability as framework that will guide the implementation of the SDGs, the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action, the Platform of Action of Population and Development and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The focus of women’s rights is key to the Consensus and the Operational Guide offers specific tools for its implementation. This not only constitutes progress for the region, but also an example to advance the implementation of the integral politics in order to guarantee the rights of women in other regions around the world.

This event will promote a dialogue between governmental and non-governmental decisionmakers, as well as international organizations, including Ministers, Ambassadors, Diplomats, the United Nations system, and leaders of civil society, organizations of women and youth, as well as journalists to progress in the fulfillment of the rights of women in the framework of just and sustainable development policies.

PROGRAMME

Moderator: by Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the UN Elbio Rosselli
Panelists:
• Mariella Mazzotti, Director of the National Institute of Women, Uruguay
• Ms. María Nieves Rico, Director of the Division of Gender of CEPAL
• Luiza Carvalho, Regional Director UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean
• Cai Yiping, Member of Executive Committee of DAWN, China