Declaration of Latin American and Caribbean Feminists regarding UN and a possible new agency for women
WE WANT MORE

The feminist articulations, networks and campaigns of Latin America and the Caribbean that gathered in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the 29th, 30th and 31st of March 2007, with the aim to debate on the UN Reform and a possible new Women’s Agency, wish to put forward our position about this process.

An extension of the existing regulation in relation to Human and Citizens’ Rights is the result of the efforts of women and men working in the different spaces, conferences, commissions and international summits. We, women have been actors in these efforts to democratize and broaden the contents of the global regulation. We have negotiated, as legitimate actors, in the different spaces of the United Nations. As a consequence, the future of this global governance space concerns us all and calls for our commitment.

United Nations is undergoing a deep legitimacy crisis, trapped in particular geopolitical, economic and ideological interests of anti-democratic and pro-war forces, paralyzed by a structure created 60 years ago, which does not correspond either to the current global dynamics and demands, or to the multiplicity of democratic interests that UN itself - together with the pressure and the fight of the social movements- helped to build. UN also drags on democratic incongruities, such as according governments’ privileges to a religious institution. On account of this fact, we demand the immediate revision of the Vatican’s status in the UN. It is unacceptable that it still maintains this prerogative, as the Vatican is a religious institution, and not a state.
In order to overcome this crisis, to modify the current correlation of forces, to eliminate the anti-democratic instances and practices (such as the right to veto in the Security Council), to eradicate the presence of private institutions, reforming the UN is not enough. It is necessary to re-found the United Nations!

Presently, the debate on the reform – within the core of the UN- aspires to consolidate “One United Nations”; this will not be possible in a United Nations sustained on correlations of forces with deep power imbalances. We want a United Nations Organization unified in its democratic aspiration, and deeply diverse in the democratic interests it advocates for and that reflect the different social, economic, cultural and sexual realities of people’s lives. We aim for UN to have a common democratic viewpoint based, at the same time, on the recognition of diversity. And this is not happening.

The rights and commitments we conquered in the UN through CEDAW and the International Treaties, Conventions, Summits and Conferences have been a founding stone for the advancement of the gender equity agenda and the fight for women’s rights. We fought, in each one of those spaces, to broaden gender and social justice, being the Beijing Platform for Action one of the major consolidations. However, governments deny or avoid their responsibility, by putting the Millennium Development Goals in the center of their commitments. These MDGs’ aim is the accountability of the less favored countries, without taking into account their development needs, or the modification of the power structures of the privileged countries. We share, together with the United Nations, the aspiration to a sustainable and inclusive development; however, we are aware that the development agenda at multilateral level has been replaced by the security and militarization agenda. We decide to work for human rights for all and the equality of people and nations, and we realize how they are, at present, deeply constrained by the rulings and the arrogance of the Security Council.

Within this context, we demand the immediate revision of the Vatican’s official status in the United Nations. It is unacceptable that it still maintains the privileges accorded to a government, being as it is a religious institution, and not a state.

No architecture, no organization that embraces or develops the gender perspective should be isolated in this deep reform of the UN structure. However, this reform cannot be envisaged without including women and democratic relationships.

We take a stand for a gender institutionalism with operational capacity in every country, which promotes, proposes, monitors and looks after the women’s rights agenda worldwide, while ensuring the necessary gender mainstreaming in the United Nations System. With a democratic political framework that redefines the structures and the relations of decentralized power, with parity, and that incorporates gender perspective as a general rule; in equal conditions with the other agencies; with adequate resources; with a democratic mandate that guarantees the strengthening of the regional levels; with an active relationship with the civil society at global level, as well as in the regions and in the countries. We take a stand for strengthening a gender architecture that articulates the work of every existing instance, maintaining a dialogue and exchange with the highest level spheres, and with the capability to be accountable to the institution itself, to the governments and to the citizens.
When we speak about United Nations, we refer not only to the global structures, but also to the regional ones. In spite of the fact that the regional spaces have been living spaces that had nurtured a propitious ground to broaden the regional regulation and create a level of regional gender institutionalism, they are also spaces where many states offer resistance to the fulfillment of the assumed international commitments. Hence, the importance of strengthening the regional levels and generating mechanisms for the governments of the countries to comply effectively with the established regulations.

We will maintain a vigilant articulation in relation to the standpoints of our governments in the debate on the UN reform, and we will be constantly struggling so as to broaden the democratic practices and institutionalism at regional, national and local levels.

In this process, alliances with the feminists of other regions are essential, on account of both the richness provided by the different viewpoints for the elaboration of more complex global agendas and practices, and the force of a global feminist articulation.

The United Nations Organizations was founded with the aim of building harmony between peoples; this harmony will not be possible as long as injustice and inequality define the relationships between persons and between countries. The challenge to build a democratic world involves us all, and we are all committed to this search. Not a single step backwards.

Signatories:
Articulación Feminista Marcosur (AFM)
CLADEM
CAFRA
DAWN AL
Equipo de Trabajo Feminista de la GCAP- ALC
Frente Continental de Mujeres Indígenas
Iniciativa Centroamericana de Seguimiento a Beijing
IGLHRC
ICAE
ILGA
Red Latinoamericana de Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir
Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe REPEM
Red de Salud de Mujeres Latinoamericanas y Caribeñas RSMLAC
Red Latinoamericana Mujeres y Habitad
Red Internacional de Género y Comercio
Red de Mujeres Rurales de América Latina y el Caribe
RED-LAC
Programa Regional La Corriente de Centroamérica
Red de Mujeres Afrolatinoamericanas
Radio Feministas Internacional FIRE

Campaigns:
Campaña Tu Boca Contra los Fundamentalismos
Campaña 28 de Septiembre por la Despenalización de Aborto en América Latina y el Caribe
Campaña por una Convención Latinoamericana por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos

National Articulations:
Articulación de Mujeres Brasileras AMB- Brasil
Articulación de Mujeres Negras-Brasil
Consorcio- México
Comisión Nacional de Seguimiento CNS – Uruguay

Young Feminist Women’s Organizations:
Karin Veloso Mazorca : Jóvenes Feministas de Sao Paulo
Johanna Ortiz : Coordinadora Feministas Jóvenes de Chile
María Eugenia Miranda : Youth Coalition
María Goñi : Articulación de Mujeres Jóvenes Trabajando en América Latina y el
Caribe por los Derechos Humanos y la Ciudadanía
Carolina Thiede : Programa Sub-Regional del Conosur de Mujeres Jóvenes Feministas

Organizations who want to join the statement could send an e-mail to:
REPEM: laredva@repem.org.uy or AFM: afm@mujeresdelsur.org.uy