São Paulo, 11 April 2025
The Escazú Agreement was highlighted as a cornerstone for advancing responsible business conduct in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 9th United Nations Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights, held from 9 to 11 April 2025 in São Paulo, Brazil. Its relevance was particularly emphasized in discussions concerning environmental protection and the rights of human rights defenders.
Bringing together more than 600 participants from across the region — including government officials, business representatives, Indigenous Peoples, civil society organizations, acade…
“The world leaders gathered here in Dubai in the coming days face a historic opportunity to transform development models into more productive, inclusive and sustainable ones,” José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stressed today during his first official activity in the framework of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which is taking place through Tuesday, December 12 in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The United Nations regional org…
As world leaders gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York this morning to officially sign the Paris Agreement on climate change – the landmark accord that sets outs a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous global warming – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Member States to move quickly to join the accord at the national level so that it can enter into force as early as possible.
“Let us never forget – climate action is not a burden; indeed, it offers many benefits,” the UN chief said as he opened the High Level Signature CeremonyThe era of consumption …
(15 August 2012) The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will present to the region its proposal on structural change for equality during its thirty-fourth session that will take place in San Salvador, El Salvador, from 27 to 31 August.
The most important biennial meeting of this United Nations regional commission will be officially opened on Tuesday 28 August at 10.00 a.m. (El Salvador time zone) by ECLAC Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, President of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, and the country's Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugo Martínez.
The session will be atte…
Watch video “Time for equality” (in Spanish, subtitles in English)
(28 March 2011) "Latin America and the Caribbean can safely take on its role in the new inclusive world scenario", according to Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, speaking today.
The senior United Nations official was taking part in the second plenary session of the 52nd annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), being held today in Calgary, Canada.
"The time for equality has arrived in the region", she declared. She proposed six pillars for a new economic strat…
(16 February 2011) During a two days visit to Ecuador and Peru, which concluded yesterday night, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, called on both South American countries to further strengthen their democratic institutions and extend the benefits of development to the most disadvantaged populations, including indigenous peoples.
Officials accompanying Ban Ki-moon included the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena, and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Oscar Fernández-Taranco, as well as other senior UN representatives.
In Quito, the UN Se…
(9 February 2010) The lower the educational level of youths, the more difficult it is for them to access quality and highly-productive jobs, especially among young women, stated ECLAC's Deputy Executive Secretary, Antonio Prado, during the II Latin America and Caribbean - European Union Forum (LAC-EU) taking place in Lima, Peru.
The Forum is being held from February 8-10 under the theme "Promoting decent work for youths. New capabilities for new jobs", and participants include government ministers and other high ranking officials from a dozen countries of the region and Europe, as well as repr…
Introduction
Since the first version issued in 1997, the Directory of national organizations dealing with programmes and policies on women in Latin America and the Caribbean (LC/L.1065); lists national authorities for the advancement of women and gender equity, specific programmes organized by ministries of foreign affairs and other official bodies responsible for women's issues at the sectoral level in each member State and associate members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);. For the purposes of this update, countries were once again requested to pr…
UN System official side event
3 December 2023, 1:15-2:45 horas, SE Room 2
Human Rights, and in line with findings of IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report and the Agreed Conclusions of the 66th Session of the Commission on Status of Women, and in the run up to the 30th
Anniversary of the ICPD, the event will explore how rights-based and gender-responsive approaches, including in climate litigation, lead to more effective and sustainable climate action. The event will highlight recent outcomes of intergovernmental processes regarding human rights and climate change, including the Escazú Agreement.…
Senior government authorities from Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions of the world, along with officials and experts from the United Nations System, international and regional organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society will gather at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile on March 31-April 4 at the eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development to review the progress and challenges related to achieving the 2030 Agenda in the region – five years ahead of the deadline set for its fulfillment.
Mo…
January 12, 2021, New York City, USA – Today is the start of the 12th Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean- a three day virtual meeting where global and regional sustainable development experts and top government officials come together to discuss the way forward for development in the region beyond OVID-19 response and recovery.
The 2020 Ministerial Forum, “Beyond Recovery. Towards a new social contract for LAC” will focus on three critical areas for development moving forward: strengthened social protection and fiscal systems; inclusive digital transformation;…
Deepening regional integration must be an essential component of any strategy for emerging from the crisis produced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in order to move towards more sustainable and resilient trade. This entails strengthening our own production linkages and promoting intraregional trade, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stated today.
The senior United Nations official spoke during the LVI Ordinary Meeting of MERCOSUR’s Common Market Council, in which the Foreign Ministers of the four countries that mak…
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, emphasized the value of the regional dimension of sustainable development as a key bridge for connecting global processes to new realities on a national level in the context of the crisis produced by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), during a high-level meeting held today with United Nations member countries and senior officials.
Bárcena participated this Friday, May 22 in a session entitled “Unleashing the UN development system’s regional assets: the path forward” during the four…
At least 3,529 women were killed for gender-based reasons in 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2018, according to the official data compiled annually by the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Four of the five highest rates of femicide, or feminicide, in Latin America occur in northern Central American countries (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala) and in the Dominican Republic. Bolivia is the remaining country, with a rate of 2.3 femicides for every 100,000 women in 2018, whic…
ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, called for equalizing to grow and growing to equalize with the aim of moving toward a new, more inclusive and sustainable development model, and for forging renewed social compacts that enable changing current growth and production patterns and fighting growing inequalities in the region, in remarks she made at various high-level events dedicated to Latin America and the Caribbean that are taking place this week in Paris.
The senior United Nations official is in France to participate in the 10th International Economic Forum on Latin America and the …
During its ten years of existence, the Ibero-American Network of Climate Change Offices (RIOCC, according to its Spanish initials) has contributed to supporting the fight against climate change by promoting cooperation and coordination among its 21 member countries, senior government officials from the region said during a special event that was held on December 11 in the framework of the 20th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20), which is taking place in Lima, Peru.
Participants in the gathering—which celebrated the RIOCC’s 10th anniv…
(19 November 2013) Speaking today at a meeting in Abu Dhabi, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, stated that the region needs "more inclusion and more well-being", given the high level of inequality and the lack of public goods affecting many citizens.
On Tuesday, the senior United Nations official took part in a plenary session entitled "Regional Perspectives on Global Trends", in the framework of the Second Global Meeting of Regional Organizations.
The meeting, which is being jointly organized by the World Ec…
(1 October, 2013) The situation of Latin American and Caribbean women is once more at the heart of regional debate thanks to the meeting organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) to review fulfilment of national gender equality commitments.
The 12th session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will be held from 15 to 18 October 2013 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to bring together authorities, experts, international officials and representatives from civil society and the business sector.
Organized by ECLAC and th…
(27 June 2013) The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, described the risks faced by Latin American economies to regional authorities meeting in Panama City, Panama, and called for a boost to policies that promote innovation, training and employment with rights.
On 26 June, the most senior official of this United Nations regional commission took part in the 6th Ibero-American Conference of Ministers of the Economy and Finance, which is being held as part of preparations for the 23rd Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State a…
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(18 April 2013) On Wednesday 17 April in Guadalajara, Mexico, a group of Latin American and Caribbean countries approved a 2014 action plan to make progress towards the conclusion of a regional agreement or other instrument to advance the full implementation of the rights of access to information, participation and justice in environmental matters for sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Speaking at the closing ceremony attended by government officials and many experts from civil society and United Nations agencies, ECLAC Executive Secretary, Alicia Bár…