The Pre-Preparatory Federal Conference for the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbeanorganized by ECLAC Y UN Womenended this Sunday in the city of Mar del Plata with a joint statement in support of the vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner behind the attempted assassination sufferedwhich the participants described as “shocking” and “a crucial challenge” for democracy.
“It’s been a month since a reprehensible, shocking and unprecedented event in the political life of our country that has broken the democratic agreement and has filled political and social coexistence with uncertainty. The assassination attempt to our colleague and Vice President marks a crucial challenge for our democracy”, pointed out the more than 1,000 women and LGBTI+ activists, trade unionists and social leaders who participated in the meeting.
The closing day of this pre-conference, which began on Saturday at the Provincial Hotel, was headed by the Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gomez Alcorta; the vice-governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Veronica Magario; the Minister of Women, Gender Policies and Sexual Diversity of Buenos Aires, Estela Diazand his provincial government counterpart, Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez.
After two days of debates and work commissions, which also included the participation of leaders such as the deputy governors of Entre Ríos, María Laura Stratta; from La Rioja, Florence Lopezfrom Santa Fe, Alejandra Rodenas, and the executive director of the National Social Security Administration (Anses), Fernanda Raventathe preparatory meeting for the regional conference to be held in November in Buenos Aires ended with the reading of the message of support for the vice president and repudiation of the attack suffered on January 1.
“The attack against Cristina is not an isolated event.. It is part of a violence that moves through the labyrinths of global privilege nurtured by new and old fascist, racializing, misogynistic and patriarchal right-wings, which act with chilling impunity and under the protection of factual, economic, financial, media and judicial powers, in our country, regionally and internationally”said the document.
The text denounced that the assassination attempt “is a sign of many daily situations of political violence against women” that are lived “in different spheres of participation”, such as “deliberative councils, in the municipalities, the provincial legislatures, in the National Congress, in the political parties, the unions, in our universities”.
One month after the attack on @CFKArgentinaauthorities throughout the country and members of all areas of society agree that political violence against women cannot take place in a democracy. pic.twitter.com/lzxWFkmfGw
— Eli Gomez Alcorta (@EliGAlcorta) October 2, 2022
“This fact takes place just a short time after the 40th anniversary of democratic life in Argentina, a democracy born in the middle of the most sinister night of the State terrorism that claimed the lives of thirty thousand disappeared men and women and of thousands of people exiled and deprived of their liberty,” warned the final message.
The participants of the meeting also called for “building a more just and egalitarian society“, and claimed the human rights, “debt reduction” and job creation policies promoted since 2003.
In this sense, they underlined the creation since 2019 of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, which allowed, among others, “the approval of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law”, the implementation of the Travesti Trans Labor Quota and progress “in the visibility of the unfair distribution of tasks and care work through its recognition for retirement contributions”.
“We agree that it is urgent to achieve equal co-responsibility in care tasks, as it is urgent to reconcile them with the responsibilities of the world of work, and ensure that care is recognized as paid, decent and professionalized work,” they stressed.
