“This is not only the time for women in Mexico, but throughout the world,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said at the inauguration of the intergovernmental gathering.

The XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean was inaugurated today, in the National Palace, by the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who stressed the need to recognize the contribution and the rights of all women and to avert rollbacks at a national, regional and global level. “I know that this is not only the time for women in Mexico, but throughout the world,” said the country’s leader, who reviewed the constitutional and legal reforms, policies and measures that her Government has carried out in various areas to ensure gender equality, women’s autonomy and the building of a comprehensive care system.

“Recognizing each other as women, no matter what space we are in, is critical. And recognizing those who historically have been denigrated and abandoned is a job for all people. That is why we have dedicated this year, the first year of our government, to indigenous women, and each year will be a year for a heroine from our homeland,” she stated.

President Claudia Sheinbaum affirmed that “once rights are won, the people no longer allow for there to be rollbacks.” She explained that saying this is the time for women means that women’s rights be fully recognized: the right to study, to health, to have a life free of violence.

Also speaking at the event’s inauguration were Clara Brugada Molina, Mayor of Mexico City; José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Sima Bahous, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women); and Citlalli Hernández Mora, Minister for Women of Mexico.

The Mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, pointed up this historic time in Mexico, with a woman holding the Presidency for the first time and showing an “unwavering commitment to fight inequalities.” “Today, gathered here, welcoming you to this Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, we want this to be a watershed. We need the greatest possible unity in Latin America and the Caribbean, a unity led by our President, and shared by all women and men, to say forcefully: ‘For the good of all our peoples and nations, poor women come first, excluded women come first, and women come first.’”

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, also celebrated the fact that for the first time, in 50 years, the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean has been received by a woman President.

The senior United Nations official emphasized that “this intergovernmental gathering conjoins memory with an ambitious proposal for the future, recognizing the achievements made in the last half century, but also making an urgent call to collective action to close the inequality gaps that still exist. Because despite the indisputable progress made, substantive equality is still an aspiration in all countries.”

“The Regional Conference on Women that we have organized with UN Women and the Government of Mexico is part of Latin America and the Caribbean’s cultural heritage today and it is also a global pacesetter since, for example, it was the first intergovernmental forum to name the right to care – a right that was unanimously recognized a few days ago, for the first time, in an international court: the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,” ECLAC’s Executive Secretary said.

“We are living in a deeply tumultuous world, marked by wars, geopolitical tensions and structural gaps that conspire against development. That is why this Conference is a powerful political signal that not only reaffirms the commitment to equality, development and peace, but also to multilateralism and coordinated and solidarity-based action between countries. In a world increasingly defined by competition, cooperation is an act of defiance,” José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs asserted.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, stated: “Thanks to this region’s leadership, the care agenda has become global. You have shown the world that care is not a luxury, it is an imperative. Investment in care is a public good, a driver of equality, recovery and sustainable development. Last week, your effort has resulted in the region having a new human right recognized by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: the right to provide care, to receive care and to self-care.”

Meanwhile, the Minister for Women, Citlalli Hernández Mora, indicated that Mexico is hosting the Conference at a time of profound transformation. “This is the best time for our country to be receiving this Conference, where the road leading to a Care Society will be discussed.” She added: “The building of a welfare system must pay special attention to girls and women.” In that regard, she applauded the fact that the Conference’s theme is on building a care agenda in the region.

Also present at the Conference’s opening ceremony were Carolina Cosse, Vice President of the Republic of Uruguay and President of the General Assembly and Chamber of Senators; the former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet; Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico; Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Minister of Culture; Rosaura Ruiz Gutiérrez, Minister of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation; Josefina Rodríguez Zamora, Minister of Tourism; Ariadna Montiel Reyes, Minister of Welfare; Rosa Icela Rodriguez Velázquez, Minister of the Interior; Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez, Anti-Corruption and Good Governance Minister; Luz Elena González Escobar, Minister of Energy; María Elena Hermelinda Lezama Espinosa, Governor of Quintana Roo; Emilia Esther Calleja Alor, Director-General of the Federal Electricity Commission; and María Alejandra Velázquez Velázquez, a young indigenous woman from the Ayapaneco people, Councilor from the State of Tabasco. 

Through Friday, August 15, 2025, the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is convening senior authorities from Mexico, elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean and from ECLAC’s Member States, along with representatives of multilateral organizations, academia, parliaments and civil society – particularly women’s and feminist organizations and movements.

Organized since 1977 by ECLAC, which serves as the Secretariat, and since 2020 in coordination with UN Women, the Conference will address “political, economic, social, cultural and environmental transformations as a means of advancing the care society and gender equality.”

During this event, to be held at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco in Mexico City, ECLAC will present the position paper The Care Society: Governance, Political Economy and Social Dialogue for a Transformation with Gender Equality, which will guide the participants’ debates.