The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the foremost intergovernmental forum of the United Nations on women’s rights and gender equality in the region. It has been regularly convened since 1977 to analyse the status of women’s autonomy and rights at the regional and subregional levels, and present recommendations regarding public policies on gender equality, in fulfilment of regional and international agreements on the subject. It is organized by ECLAC as the Conference Secretariat with the support of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

The commitments assumed by the governments of the region at the Regional Conference on Women have resulted in a meaningful, progressive and comprehensive Regional Gender Agenda that guides the countries' public policies to achieve gender equality, the guarantee of the rights of women, adolescents and girls in all their diversity, the exercise of their autonomy and the sustainable development of the region.

Over the past 48 years, ECLAC member States have held 15 meetings of the Regional Conference.

The XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will discuss political, economic, social, cultural and environmental transformations as a means of advancing the care society and gender equality.

The session will also include the relaunch of the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean and a segment entitled “Memory and future: 50 years since the first World Conference on Women (Mexico City, 1975)”.

All ECLAC member countries are expected to participate, along with representatives of agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations, other international agencies, intergovernmental organizations, universities and academic centres, and non-governmental organizations, in particular women’s and feminist networks and movements.

Road map to the sixteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

• Academic Forum “Territories of Care: Contributions from Academia to the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Mexico City, 28 and 29 August 2024). Briefing note
• Caribbean Acedemic Forum "Contributions to the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Advancing Towards Care Societies" (Barbados, 25 and 26 March 2025). Briefing note
• Preparatory meeting for the sixteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean with the countries of the English-speaking Caribbean (hybrid format, in Barbados, 27 March 2025). Briefing note
• Preparatory meeting for the sixteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean with the South American countries (virtual, 8 April 2025)). Briefing note 
• Preparatory meeting for the sixteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean with the countries of Central America, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Mexico (virtual, 9 April 2025). Briefing note 
• Twenty- seventh Meeting of Specialized Agencies and Other Bodies of the United Nations System on the Advancement of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (virtual, 10 April 2025). Briefing note