In the EU-CELAC Summit held on 26-27 January 2013 in Santiago de Chile the heads of states and governments of Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean adopted a policy statement and an action plan EU-CELAC (2013-2014). As an outcome of the ongoing work of the civil society in the different countries, this action plan created a bi-regional dialogue on gender issues that includes, as one of its three focal points, the elimination of all forms of violence against women.
In order to achieve their goal, the action plan proposes different actions. One of those will be the creation of a bi-regional seminar to exchange experiences about gender-related violence and to share the best practices and most effective measures. It is mentioned that there is a necessity to identify and exchange practices and lessons learned about the integration of the gender perspective in all the public policies, the standardisation of investigation protocols in order to prosecute and punish the perpetrators. It is also planned to create a bi-regional intergovernmental work group to define shared objectives about the three gender-related focal points.
What is and should be the role of civil society organisations in these processes? What changes do the public policies need to combat the violence against women and what would be their key issues? What will be the role of the European Union and its Member States?
What proposals does Argentina put forward, having been one of the most active promoters of the creation of this gender-related dialogue?