WE WANT MORE
April 2007
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
Latin American and Caribbean Committee for
the Defense of Women's Rights - CLADEM
Caribbean
Association for Feminist Research and Action - CAFRA
Development Action for Women Network (Latin America) DAWN
AL
Equipo de Trabajo Feminista de la GCAP- ALC
Frente
Continental de Mujeres Indígenas
Iniciativa
Centroamericana de Seguimiento a Beijing
International Gay
and Lesbian Human Rights Commission - IGLHRC
International
Council for Adult Education - ICAE
International Lesbian
and Gay Association - 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
Latin American and Caribbean
Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights - 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