Latin American and Caribbean governments face pressure to restore women’s rights safeguards at Montevideo talks News
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Latin American and Caribbean governments face pressure to restore women’s rights safeguards at Montevideo talks

Latin American and Caribbean governments convened Tuesday for a three-day UN conference on population and development, meeting amid what Amnesty International described as a regional rollback of protections for women, girls, and adolescents.

The Regional Conference on Population and Development (CRPD) will be held in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo on August 18-20.

Ahead of the event, Amnesty International urged states to uphold their commitments under the Montevideo Consensus, one of the region’s most significant intergovernmental agreements on the rights of various population groups in the region, as defined by gender, ethnicity, age, and other factors.

Human rights advocates have long documented concerns regarding women’s health impacts in the region, owing to poor implementation of legal protections against gender based violence, femicide, child marriage, and restrictive reproductive rights.

Amnesty International indicated that the upcoming CRPD must prioritize gender justice and ensure that women’s rights groups are not dismantled and defunded, and that the Montevideo Consensus must be fully actualized in order to stop perpetuating the standard of institutionalized violence, coercion, and exploitation of women and girls.

“Amid a relentless wave of attacks on the rights of women, girls, and adolescents, the Montevideo Consensus must continue to be a roadmap for the protection of human rights and not a mere list of outstanding promises,” said Amnesty International’s Americas Director Ana Piquer. “Current challenges require concrete actions, adequate resources and effective accountability mechanisms.”

Despite the heightened aggression towards women’s rights organizations, groups and feminist movements such as UN Women and the Girls, Not Mothers campaign are working to bring light to and address the severity of the inequality faced by these populations. In recent years, UN Women has worked to enable women’s political participation and economic empowerment, as well as combat violence against women through the Belém do Pará Convention.

“Every woman, girl and adolescent must be able to make free and informed decisions regarding their bodies, every woman survivor of violence must have support and protection from the state, and every woman defender must be able to demand justice and equality without fear of reprisals,” said Piquer.

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