Background 

In 2013, the countries of the region met in the city of Montevideo for the First Meeting of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, where they adopted the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development as the regional roadmap on the subject. It highlights the importance of mainstreaming disability issues as an integral part of national strategies for sustainable development, from a rights-based perspective, with equality and without discrimination. It also encourages countries to develop and strengthen the capacities of national statistical systems and national statistical offices to produce population data, disaggregated by disability, among other relevant characteristics in the diversity of the population necessary for an accurate assessment of the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus. In turn, in 2022, Resolution 4[IV] of the Fourth Meeting of the Regional Conference on Population and Development called for the further inclusion of disability-specific information in voluntary national reports in relation to the various chapters of the Montevideo Consensus. 

At the fifth session of the Regional Conference, held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, on July 3 and 4, 2024, a panel focused on persons with disabilities and the population and development agenda was convened. The panel included representatives from government, civil society, academia, international cooperation agencies, and other relevant stakeholders engaged in the observance of the rights of persons with disabilities. The aim was to analyze the progress and challenges regarding the observance of the rights of persons with disabilities since the adoption of the Programme of Action of the ICPD, taking into account the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Montevideo Consensus. During the meeting, countries reaffirmed the crucial importance of strengthening policy actions to ensure the full realization of the rights of persons with disabilities, as these issues are integral to the population and development agenda, as well as to the implementation of various conventions in this area, other human rights instruments, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

In this context, the countries resolved to create the open-ended group of friends of the Chair on the rights of persons with disabilities and the population and development agenda within the framework of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (Cartagena Group), to discuss strategies to advance the inclusion of persons with disabilities, in close collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and called for active collaboration in the analysis of strategies to move forward the inclusion of persons with disabilities and to contribute to the promotion and protection of their human rights. 

Under the coordination and leadership of the Government of Colombia, the Cartagena Group represents an open mechanism in which all governments of Latin America and the Caribbean can participate. Its purpose is to analyze the situation and conditions in which people with disabilities live in the region, within the framework of the Regional Conference on Population and Development, in order to propose and evaluate strategies to increase the inclusion

Program

Moderator: - Daniela González Ollino, CELADE – Population Division of ECLAC 

13:00-13:10 Opening 

• Sebastián Camilo Guanumen Parra, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Colombia to the Republic of Chile, in its capacity of Chair of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development and Coordinator of the Cartagena Group
• Simone Cecchini, Chief of CELADE - Population Division of ECLAC
• Susana Sottoli, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 

13:10-14:00 Panel 

• Karen Astorga Villagra, Director (a.i.), National Disability Service (SENADIS), Ministry of Social Development and Family of Chile.
• Olga Montúfar, President of the Network of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women with Disabilities of Latin America and the Caribbean (online participation)
• Marcela Ramírez, Deputy Director, Continuing Education Programme Coordinator, School of Social Work, University of Costa Rica (online participation)

14:00-14:10 Presentation of the open-ended Group of Friends of the Chair on the rights of persons with disabilities and the population and development agenda in the framework of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (Cartagena Group) 

• Diana Patricia Mejía Molina, Director of Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia 

14:10-14:30: Debate and closing of the event