DECLARATION OF SANTO DOMINGO

(Adopted at the fourth plenary session held on November 18, 1998)

We, the Principal Delegates of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), meeting at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) on the occasion of the XXIX Regular Meeting of the Assembly of Delegates, originally scheduled to be held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and canceled because of the national emergency declared in that country;

RECALLING:

That 1998 marks the 70th anniversary of the creation of the CIM, an organization that from its inception has been dedicated to the advancement of women through the formulation of proposals and recommendations to the governments of the Hemisphere designed to achieve social, economic, and political equality for women in the Americas and a view of the roles of men and women as complementary beings of equal worth, equally responsible for the fate of mankind;

That the Charter of the OAS reaffirms as a principle of the American States the basic rights of persons without distinction as to race, nationality, creed, or sex;

That the CIM, in compliance with this principle, has promoted the adoption of legal instruments such as:

• the Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Civil Rights to Women and

• the Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women,

We declare our resolve to reaffirm the commitments undertaken in:

• The American Convention on Human Rights - Pact of San Jos� (Costa Rica, 1969),

• The Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights - Protocol of San Salvador (El Salvador, 1988),

• The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women - Convention of Bel�m do Par� (Brazil, 1994),

We reaffirm our objective of promoting the fulfillment of the commitments, plans, and programs adopted in:

• The Consensus of Georgetown, adopted at the "Post-Beijing Encounter: a Caribbean Subregional Ministerial Conference"(Guyana, 1997)

• The Consensus of Santiago, adopted at the VII Regional Conference on the Participation of Women in Development (Chile, 1997),

• The Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action of the First and Second Summit of the Americas (Miami, 1994 and Santiago, Chile, 1998),

• The Joint Declarations of Female Ministers and Officials Responsible for Policies on Women (Santiago, 1995; Managua, 1996; Asunci�n, 1997; Caracas, 1998);

That the human rights obligations assumed by the states are a basis for action in the national sphere;

That the inter-American human rights system establishes and defines a set of obligations and standards to promote and protect human rights and fundamental liberties, as well as the organs that monitor their observance;

That the full and equal participation of women in the development of our countries is indispensable for the promotion of the dignity and rights of women in the Hemisphere; and

BEARING IN MIND:

That the Strategic Plan of Action of the CIM, presented at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, proposed strategies to be carried out to secure and strengthen the role of women through the year 2000, giving priority in that five-year period to the following topics: the participation of women in power and decision-making structures, education, the elimination of violence, and the eradication of poverty;

That the objective of the CIM's Biennial Work Plan is to gear the Commission's efforts towards activities with a regional scope, within the priority areas identified, concentrating on aspects that can achieve a multiplier effect, in order to produce results with greater potential social impact; and

That the Plans of Action of the CIM and the Summits of the Americas have common priority areas of interest that should be followed as the main part of the 1998-2000 biennium, with a view to maximizing results and adapting to the availability of resources,

DECLARE:

1. That the rights of women, throughout their life cycle, are an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of universal human rights.

2. That it is imperative to ensure the observance of the human rights of women for the purpose of eliminating all discriminatory situations and to recognize women's legal capacity and equality under the law.

3. That we reaffirm our resolve to support all strategies designed to strengthen and modernize the Commission and its relations with other agencies of the inter-American system.