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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Organization of American States (OAS)
In the framework of the VI Conference of States Party to the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, (Belém do Pará Convention), Ministers for Women's Affairs and experts in gender violence of the Follow-Up Mechanism to the Belém Do Pará Convention (MESECVI) issued a Declaration on Political Harassment and Violence Against Women on October 18th, with the aim of advancing in the full recognition and exercise of women's rights. This Declaration addresses the need to eliminate violence and political harassment to achieve the full realization of women's political rights and to guarantee their equal access to all the public instances, in conditions free of discrimination and violence at all levels and in all arenas of political life. Also, it acknowledges the responsibility of the Estates, of the political parties, and other actors to foster legal and cultural changes in order to guarantee the substantive equality of women and men in political spheres, according to the recommendations of the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the commitments assumed through the Belém do Pará Convention. The highest authorities for women highlighted that political harassment and/or violence against women have become more visible due to the increased political participation of women, especially as political representatives, which in turn is the result of implementation of gender quotas and parity policies, measures that have been adopted by a large number of countries in the Americas. Promoting the adoption of programs and measures for the prevention, attention, protection and eradication of political violence and/or harassment; fostering the formulation of public policies designed to achieve substantive equality, and disseminating research and generating statistics, are among the measures agreed to be implemented. They also acknowledged the importance of involving the media, and encouraging them to develop codes of ethics aimed to eliminate the discrimination against women in politics by the media and to present women in a fair and respectful manner, at all levels of hierarchy and responsibility, eliminating sexist stereotypes that disqualify or hide their leadership in all decision-making spaces. In this sense, the CIM is organizing a Dialogue “The Right to Gender Transformative Communication and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda” on November 2nd from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Hall of the Americas at the OAS, in Washington, D.C. This event seeks to open a hemispheric debate to foster gender transformative communication, based on the exchange of good practices, with a view to driving changes in communications media attitude and practices. To register click here. Declaration spanish Declaration english
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