Chile+SCH

Alexia S. SCH Chile THS MUN Conference

BACKGROUND

Gender equality is an issue that is occurring in every square inch of the world, mostly affecting women and girls. It deprives them from living peacefully, being free from violence, and legal protection. Men are hardly ever discriminated against if ever. It is believed that men are capable of more, and so they are given more rights and privileges. However, many would support the idea that many, many women have accomplished something that changed the world. Whether it be through sports, or science, or politics, women have changed the world for the better. For example, Diane Fossey came from a broken home, and grew to be known as the woman who saved the mountain gorillas. This shows that women can do all the same activities as men and they deserve to be treated the same. In chile, women have achieved equal standing in the constitution. However, due to discrimination in health, work, and family, gender equality is still a work in progress for Chile.

UN INVOLVEMENT

Many nations have produced ideas on the topic of increasing the rights of women and all of them do it with the help of the United Nations. In 2000, the UN held the UN Millennium Summit. This summit was meant to help achieve measurable improvements in people's lives including greater gender equality. At this summit, 189 nations adopted the UN Millennium Development Goals. Chile was one of these nations. Also, in 1979, the UN adopted the Convention of Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination of Women. Now, over 185 countries have adopted CEDAW, one of these countries being Chile. in 1975, the UN adopted the Commission on the Status of Women. This document was meant to end violence against women and girls in participating countries. Being that Chile is for gender equality, they are one of the 165 nations that have adopted this document.

COUNTRY POLICY

In Chile, we have diminished most forms of gender discrimination and our society has benefitted from it. However, in our nation, their is still discrimination against women in health, work, and family. Until 2005, women in Chile did not acquire the right to file a divorce. However, since we are all for gender equality, our legislatures ratified the bill allowing women to file divorces in 2005. in the near future, Chile wishes to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination in our country, and we recognize that to do this, we need to execute every opportunity. We would also like to assist neighboring nations in diminishing discrimination in their own country.

SOLUTIONS

NGO's in Chile have attempted to create conventions and committees against gender discrimination in the past, but they did succeed. However, recently Chile created Americas Pro Gender Equality. This association is meant to persuade governments of nations who are against gender equality to grant rights to women, and help countries who are attempting to install gender rights. We will promote gender equality in all countries, we will attend all conventions, sign all treaties, and execute all opportunities that will allow us to help make the world a better place for women.

CITATIONS

http://gorillafund.org/dian_fossey/ http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44382 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4000/is_200510/ai_n15640747 http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2095 http://www.un.org/millennium/summit.htm http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/