Communiqué: Committee of Experts advances agenda to guarantee a life free from violence for women in Latin America and the Caribbean

CONCLUDES PERIOD OF SESSIONS OF THE COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS (CEVI) AND IT ADVANCES IN A DIVERSE AND NECESSARY AGENDA TO GUARANTEE A LIFE FREE OF VIOLENCE FOR THE WOMEN OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Washington, DC December, 2021. On December 7 and 8, 2021, the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism of the “Convention of Belém do Pará”, held its XVIII Meeting through a virtual platform. The meeting included interventions by Nadine Gasman, President of the Conference of the States Parties to the Follow-up Mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention and the Executive Secretary of the CIM, Alejandra Mora Mora.

The CEVI Experts[1] from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Venezuela met during both sessions to address different issues and priorities of the 2022 agenda and the Fourth Multilateral Evaluation Round of the MESECVI.

During the meeting, the Committee approved the Report on Child Marriage and Early Unions that details how the States of the region, despite expressly legislating on this prohibition, continue to exist cultural patterns and practices that continue to allow and encourage this harmful practice, that permanently affects and puts the integrity and life of millions of girls at risk in Latin America and the Caribbean countries. The Committee also ratified the importance of the General Recommendation on Consent in cases of Sexual Violence and approved sending it to the parliaments of the region so that it may be taken into account in the legislative harmonization of the States in accordance with the standards established there.

Agreed to make an urgent call to the Convention´s States Parties to strengthen the budgets allocated for the response to combat violence against women and girls in the framework of the COVID 19 pandemic; especially to respond to the violence suffered by groups of women and girls who are in situations of greater vulnerability - such as indigenous women and girls, Afro-descendant women, women and girls with disabilities, and migrant women and girls, affected by the pandemic and especially by climate change and its impact on the economy of the English-speaking Caribbean States.

The Committee also expressed its concern about the migratory flows in the region and the impact of violence on the lives of girls and women who are migrating, and made a strong call for attention on the feminization of migration and especially, on the violence that Venezuelan women and girls in this condition are suffering throughout the region, including the migration of Venezuelan girls to the Caribbean States.

The Committee, also, agreed to deepen the study on the cases of forced disappearances faced by women and girls in the region, in particular women and girls living in vulnerable communities, and migrant women and girls, identifying the existing intersectionalities with the migration situation in the region.

The Committee calls on the authorities of the Caribbean and Haiti to strengthen ties with the MESECVI and its Committee of Experts and, in this regard, undertakes to strengthen and carry out the actions that are necessary to guarantee a broader participation of the States. of the Caribbean in the work that the Committee has been developing.

The Committee also drew attention to the prevention of violence and agreed to deepen the work and cooperation with the States Parties in this matter, reinforcing the measures to dismantle prejudices and values, traditions and beliefs that strengthen the asymmetries of power, misogyny and a patriarchal system that is reproduced in educational processes and in socialization, especially of boys and men.

The Committee agreed to request support from the OAS States Parties to continue collaborating with the MESECVI, and in particular with its Experts Committee; requests special collaboration from the OAS States Parties that are not parties to the Convention, especially the United States and Canada and the Observer States, to strengthen cooperation tools and their participation in the Mechanism.

The Committee encouraged all States Parties to the Convention to participate actively in the IV Multilateral Evaluation Round on Access to Justice, Truth and Reparation for Women Victims and Survivors of Violence; and recognized the work that is being carried out in the region in cooperation with United Nations agencies, within the framework of the Spotlight; the European Union with Eurosocial and the Belisario Domínguez Institute of the Senate of the Republic of Mexico, that will be very useful to advance in the analysis of this topic .

Likewise, the Committee is especially grateful for the specific contributions of Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico, without whose contributions this meeting would not have been possible; and invites the other States Parties to contribute to the Mechanism, according to their capacities. Finally, thanks went to the departing experts for their service and welcomed the incoming experts for this new Evaluation Round.

[1] The main experts: Susana Chiarotti; Leila Linhares Barsted; Tatiana Rein Venegas; Sylvia Mesa Peluffo; Gloria Camacho; Tania Camila Rosa; Hilda Morales; Barbara Bailey; Teresa Inchcastletegui; Pilar Callizo; Marcela Huaita; Cristina Sánchez; Sherma Alexander, Marcia Symphorien; Rinnett Djokarto and Natalia Brandler.
The alternate experts: Rumelia Dalphinis and Tricia Basdeo-Gobin.