Bi-regional Relations Marta Carballo de la Riva and Enara Echart Muñoz The Issue of Gender in Relations between the EU and LAC: State of the Art and Opportunities for Bi-regional Cooperation 2 EU-LAC FOUNDATION, 2015 Hagedornstraße .22 20149 Hamburg, Germany www.eulacfoundation.org AUTHORS: Marta Carballo de la Riva Enara Echart Muñoz TEXT REVISION AND EDITING: Arturo Esquivel and Mayra Viviana Lozano GRAPHIC DESIGN: tinakoeppert.de PRINT: Scharlau GmbH DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12858/0515en2 This Study was financed by the EU-LAC Foundation. The EU-LAC Foundation receives funding from its member States and the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the EU-LAC Foundation, its member States, or the European Union. The first edition of this book was published in May of 2015 in 100 copies This publication is copywrite but the text may be used free of charge for the purposes of advocacy, campaigning, education, and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in full. The copywrite holder requests that all such use be registered with them for impact assess- ment purposes. For copying in any other circumstances, or for reuse in other publications, or for translation and adaptation, permission must be secured by the EU-LAC Foundation. Get in touch with us via e-mail: [email protected] 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people interviewed and their organisations, whose dedication and consequently their contributions to this paper have helped make advances in the fight for gender equality through their ardu- ous labour. Also, we would like to thank the EU-LAC Foundation for their support in the development of this research paper and their contributions as an agent in EU-CELAC discussions, along with their efforts in the tasks laid out in the Gender Working Area of the Santiago Action Plan. TABLE OF CONTENTS The Issue of Gender in Relations between the EU and LAC: State of the Art and Opportunities for Bi-regional Cooperation LIST OF ACRONYMS................................................................................................... 06 Executive Summary ..................................................................................................... 08 1 Introduction............................................................................................................. 13 2 The principle of equality in regional blocs and the gender perspective .... 17 2.1 The European Union ...................................................................................... 20 2.2 Latin America and the Caribbean ................................................................ 25 2.2a In systems of regional integration ..................................................... 27 2.2b In multilateral institutions ................................................................... 29 2.3 Spaces for civil society participation .......................................................... 32 3 Practices, lessons learned and challenges to be faced ................................ 36 3.1 Sources and databases used ........................................................................... 37 3.2 Best practices ..................................................................................................... 39 3.2a On the political participation of women ......................................... 39 3.2b On the elimination of all forms of violence .................................... 43 against women and girls including sexual violence 3.2c On the economic empowerment of women and .......................... 49 their participation in the workplace and decision-making processes 3.3. Challenges ......................................................................................................... 55 4 Conclusions and recommendations for action ............................................ 57 4.1. Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 57 4.2. Recommendations ........................................................................................... 62 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 66 ANNEXE ........................................................................................................................... 73 LIST OF ACRONYMS AECID: Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation ALBA: Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America CARICOM: Caribbean Community CAAAMI: Andean Council of High Female Authorities and Equal Opportunities CAN: Andean Community of Nations CEDAW: Convention of the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women CELAC: Community of Latin American and Caribbean States CIM: Inter-American Commission of Women COMMCA: Council of Female Ministers of Central America and Dominican Republic DAW: Division for the Advancement of Women ECLAC: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean ERDF: European Regional Development Fund ESF: European Social Fund EIGE: European Institute for Gender Equality EU: European Union EUROSTAT: Statistical Office of the European Union FGM: Female Genital Mutilation 6 FRA: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights ILO: International Labour Organisation INSTRAW: United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women LAC: Latin America and the Caribbean LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender MERCOSUR: Common Market of the South (Latin America) OAS: Organization of American States OIJ: Organization of Ibero-American Youth OSAGI: Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women RMAAM: Meeting of Female Ministers and Women’s Highest Authorities SAP: Santiago Action Plan SEGIB: Ibero-American General Secretariat SICA: Central American integration System UNDP: United Nations Development Programme UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund UNIFEM: United Nations Development Fund for Women 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper ensures continuity to the activities that were initiated within the framework of the dia- logue on gender issues, offering a state of the art on gender issues in the European Union (EU), Latin America and the Caribbean. Therefore, special attention will be placed upon three main areas, as defined by the Santiago Action Plan (SAP): (i) the political participation of women; (ii) the eradication of all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual violence; and (iii) the economic empowerment of women and their participation in the workplace and in all decision-making processes. This study uses a transnational perspective, a gender-based and rights-based approach to analyse the progress that has been made, and the challenges it faces in the quest for equality between men and women within the EU-LAC space. The incipient Community of Latin Ameri- can and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the EU-CELAC dialogue have directed this paper’s focus toward Latin American and the Caribbean integration systems prior to the inception of CELAC. In the last few decades, the bi-regional relationship has been cemented with a foundation that is based on a shared identity and history between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Both regions share values and goals that originate in Western traditions (Sanahuja 2013:171), which are related to democracy, the validity of human rights, the rule of law, social cohesion, the defence of multilateralism and peace, and international cooperation, among others. This study thus charts the development of a normative framework that articulates and orients interventions on gender issues. However, this soft and hard legislation develops differently in both regions. In the Latin American and the Caribbean region, the development of this type of legislation is conditioned by the different processing speeds of each integration system. The inclusion of the principle of equality as a constituting element in both regional spaces is one of the cornerstones for the reinforcement of democracy and the development of fairer, egalitar- ian societies. Policies and actions over the last couple of decades have been oriented towards maximising the political participation of women at every level in society under the auspices of equality between men and women. In this way, and parallel to the international and regional debates on, and developments in, achieving equality (CEDAW, Beijing, Belém do Pará, Rome Statute, etc.), the focus and approaches have translated to the development of legislation, strat- egies and concrete interventions. The integration of gender perspectives and the combination 8 of strategies that emerge in both regions as a result of the 1995 Beijing Summit resulted in the institutionalisation of an agenda on gender in both regions. This institutionalisation has not yet taken place in the bi-regional space: this will be enabled by the dialogue and the actions to be defined vis-à-vis gender norms. The institutionalisation process has also evolved differently in both regions. Even though the main topics and concerns within the agendas are similar, the participation of civil society in the LAC region is now more dynamic than in the EU. The institutionalisation processes have been developed with different focuses in mind. While in Latin American it is a markedly bottom-up process, in the EU it can be seen as a top-down process. The combination of both approaches