The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, one of the subsidiary bodies of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), is the foremost intergovernmental forum of the United Nations on women’s rights and gender equality in the region. 

Its sessions are organized by ECLAC, as secretariat of the Conference, and since 2020 in coordination with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). 

It is convened on a regular basis, at least every three years, to analyse the status of women’s autonomy and rights at the regional and subregional levels, present recommendations regarding public policies on gender equality, and undertake periodic assessments of the policies, programmes and initiatives implemented in fulfilment of regional and international agreements on the subject.

Since 1977, the member States of ECLAC have held 16 sessions of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and have agreed a meaningful, cumulative and comprehensive Regional Gender Agenda, which guides countries’ public policies for gender equality in law and in practice, fulfilling the rights and autonomy of women, adolescent girls and young girls, in all their diversity.

The Tlatelolco Commitment, adopted at the Sixteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (2025), establishes a decade of action (2025–2035) in Latin America and the Caribbean to accelerate the achievement of substantive gender equality and the care society. The countries acknowledge the proposal of the care society that Latin America and the Caribbean offer to the world as a new paradigm for sustainable development, equality and peace, one that prioritizes the sustainability of life and the planet (para. 2), and commit to promoting measures to overcome the sexual division of labor and advance toward a fair social organization of care (para. 3). Likewise, they recognize the human right to care, which includes the right of individuals to provide care, to receive care and to practice self-care, based on the principles of equality, universality and social and gender co-responsibility (para. 4). The resolution also includes various specific commitments related to its implementation, such as the regulatory framework, institutions, participation and strengthening of State capacities; financing and cooperation; and information, communication, technology, monitoring, evaluation and accountability systems.