Paraguay commits to boost resources for rural women and improve coordinated action to prevent violence against women and punish perpetrators (updated)

In a speech prepared in the context of the Global Leaders’ Meeting, President Horacio Cartes said: “I make a firm commitment to strengthening the actions needed to speed up the advancement of real and effective equality between men and women in my country in accordance with the national regulatory framework.”

He outlined the country’s priorities for increasing women’s economic empowerment, through significant steps to include rural women with scant resources in public programmes by getting them into productive projects, providing them with access to credit and training, and enacting the Public Policy Law for Rural Women. He committed to boost the implementation of this Law with as many resources as possible and to increase the number of rural women engaged in agricultural work who are beneficiaries of agrarian extension programmes.

To prevent and punish gender-based violence, he said he is doubling political support to approve the Draft Law for Comprehensive Protection for Women against any kind of Violence, now being discussed in the National Congress, and committed to improving the coordinated actions among the different institutions to prevent any danger, help women facing violence and trafficking, and punish perpetrators.

To improve women’s public and political participation, through the governing mechanism for public policies for gender equality, he said Paraguay will promote legislative reform aimed at democratic parity, and political agreements to increase women’s presence in decision-making positions and in positions of power. [ Commitment statement: en | es ]

Developments since Paraguay’s commitment

Paraguay has taken decisive action to fulfil the commitments on gender equality its President made at the 2015 Global Leaders’ meeting.

Paraguay has made progress in the implementation of the Public Policy Law for Rural Women, with more than 1,000 rural women who have been trained on agriculture techniques, and activities undertaken for increased awareness of the new law engaging more than 2,000 people.

In 2016, the Law for Comprehensive Protection for Women against Any Kind of Violence was approved, and a task force to ensure its full implementation has been formed.

Paraguay has also presented a new draft Law on Democratic Parity aimed at increasing women’s representation in politics and society, that has been drafted with UN Women’s support. The Government has organized several events and campaigns to increase visibility of the issue.

It has also undertaken activities to enhance economic opportunities for indigenous women. [ Full update (in Spanish) ]