Cuba was elected Tuesday in Brazil one of th vice presidents of the 11th session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean that will analyze the situation of women and genre equality.
In the opening of the meeting hosted by the Golden Tulip hotel, Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim said governments are responsible for promoting public policies that boost the progress of women and improve their political, economic and social participation, Prensa Latina reported.
In Cuba –considered a paradigm on the issue in the hemisphere – the situation of women changed with the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 when the new government introduced a series of changes fostering their participation in political and social roles that were usually undertaken by men.
Cuba was the first country to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the second one to ratify it.
The Conference chaired by Brazil concludes on Friday with the release of the Brazilian Consensus that is expected to be passed by more than 800 delegates from 33 nation members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) and about a hundred non-governmental organizations from all over the world.
Cuba is sharing the vice presidency of the conference with Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The Cuban delegation to the event is led by Yolanda Ferrer, general secretary of the Cuban Women Federation and it is made up of Rebeca Cutie, Foreign Trade Ministry 's official, and members of the island's diplomatic mission to Brazil Alexis Bandrich and Maura Juampere.
