The former president of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, will meet in an intergenerational dialogue with Gilda Menchú, a young indigenous activist from Guatemala. This event will take place as part of the regional meeting of parliamentarians from Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by PARLATINO and UN Women. The main theme of the meeting is 'For an inclusive, just, sustainable, and gender-balanced democracy.'
On October 31 and November 1, discussions and sessions will be held at the permanent headquarters of PARLATINO in Panama, featuring parliamentarians, activists, and specialists from the region. The goal is to accelerate norms and policies that ensure the full exercise of human rights for women and girls in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In the region, there is a 35.8% representation of women in lower chambers, a result of progress in quota and parity laws. The Framework Norm for Consolidating Gender-Balanced Democracy, approved by PARLATINO in 2015, highlights the importance of active participation by all women in governance to achieve substantive equality in all areas of development.
The meeting aims to jointly create a parliamentary agenda for an inclusive, just, sustainable, and gender-balanced democracy in the region. Additionally, a dialogue on women's economic empowerment will take place, with the collaboration of CAF - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prominent women such as Laura Chinchilla, María Noel Vaeza, Minou Tavárez Mirabal, and others will lead various sessions during the event. The participation of chairs of committees for the advancement of women's rights from national and regional parliaments, as well as deputies and members of PARLATINO committees, is expected.
Within the framework of the meeting, General Recommendation 40 will be presented regarding the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems, recently adopted at the 89th session of the CEDAW Committee at the United Nations. This Recommendation emphasizes the importance of parity in governance structures for the effective advancement of women's rights and sustainable development. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, globally, the representation of women in parliaments reached 26.9% in early 2024.
