Claudia Calvin Venero is the founder of mujeresconstruyendo.com and Executive Director of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI). TWITTER:LaClau
This paper was prepared for the EU-LAC Foundation’s Newsletter of June 2015 published in the framework of the 2015 EU-CELAC Summit. This is a translation of the responsibility of the EU-LAC Foundation; to read the original version in Spanish please follow the link.
It will be impossible to build a future of prosperity, inclusion, democracy and development if the presence and participation of women is not consider in a proactive and assertive way. This is a fact for all countries as well as for international relations, and strategic partnerships, such as the EU-CELAC.
Women are half the population of the planet, however our presence in decision-making and policy making processes, economic participation, media and global fora do not reflect this. Our reality remains invisible in many of these spaces and thus the decisions taken on them only serve to accentuate the differences and inequalities that characterize today the situation of women in the world.
Far too little has been done to incorporate and to mainstream the gender perspective in international decision-making procesees, and to include it in the international fora and strategic partnerships agenda. It is time to change the approach, women and men participating in these spaces must include this perspective clearly in the meetings, agreements and decisions carried out. The next meeting of the 61 heads of state of EU-CELAC may be key to set a precedent of this magnitude.
What does this mean specifically? (Read paper)