UN Women and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) have signed a five-year agreement to formulate and implement joint annual action plans on promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, and stopping inter-generational transference of inequality and poverty, in the 12 UNASUR Member States.
15 June 2012: The UN entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, UN Women, and the Secretariat of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) have signed a framework cooperation agreement on promoting gender equality, gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment in the 12 UNASUR States.
The agreement was signed on 15 June 2012, in a ceremony at UNASUR headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, by UN Women Executive Director Michele Bachelet and UNASUR Secretary General Alí Rodríguez Araque.
Under five-year agreement, the two entities will jointly formulate and implement annual Action Plans, which will be formalized in Additional Protocols to be part of the Cooperation Agreement. The areas of cooperation include: mainstreaming gender in plans and programs; eliminating discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; the achievement of equality between women and men as partners in and beneficiaries of development; human rights; humanitarian action, peace and security; and education and action to stop inter-generational transference of inequality and poverty.
The 12 UNASUR Member States are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. [UNASUR Press Release (Spanish)]