 Just to mention that this webinar will be recorded and we kindly request you to explore and make use of the translation function shown at the right bottom of your screen and feel free to switch into your preferred language Spanish or English as we go along and in order to hear the interpreted language only click on the mute original audio also Juan my colleague Juan will explore this later with you in a bit. My name is Marla and I'm a member of the research team at Scrap Weapons along with my colleague Juan and together we will be moderating this webinar. This is the sixth webinar of our broader project Feminism Leadership in Disarmament and it's a project including webinar series along with research opinion and blog posts and also social media campaign. We are very delighted to host this special webinar in collaboration with the United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean better known as UN Lyric Headquartered in Lima Peru. So the project's overall objectives are to raise awareness on the achievements and contributions of women working in the field with a focus on women from the global south. We also aim to explore the challenges that women face as they enter and progress in the field of disarmament. For this particular webinar we aim to discuss disarmament efforts and achievements from women from Latin America and the Caribbean to gain insight into the work undertaken by UN Lyric. We also aim to explore political efforts undertaken by women in progressing non-proliferation practices of conventional arms in particular small and light weapons. We hope that this webinar will examine ways in which grassroots advocacy and campaigns can be enhanced against the use of convention and weapons and the disproportionate effects they have on women's and girls' security and livelihoods. Briefly, SCRAB weapons is a campaign that suggests adopting legal international agreements as a basis for general and complete global disarmament. At SCRAB we are constantly developing research projects about disarmament, verification, emerging technology and of course feminism in the field. And we hope to mobilize governmental, non-governmental, economic and expert forces in support to the same outcome. Thank you Marla. Welcome everyone. Seán bienvenidos y bienvenidas to this webinar. Latin America is one of the few continents declared a nuclear weapons free zone since 1967 following the ratification of the Treaty of Tlatelalco. This means that the several governments in the region have committed not to develop nuclear weapons. However, Latin America and the Caribbean are still afflicted by small and light weapons, SAW, which are those broadly understood as being portable and in some cases are widely accessible. Addressing the legal trade of small and light weapons is of particular concern to UNIREC. The widespread use of conventional weapons poses one of the most serious challenges facing the region. According to CIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 69% of homicides in Central America and Mexico were the result of conventional firearms from 2007 to 2010. Figures much higher than the global average of 46%. Over the last decades, women in Latin America and the Caribbean have been central to progressing national and regional efforts and campaigns for this armament. Over the course of this series of webinars organized by SCRAP, previous panelists have consistently highlighted the importance of increasing the presence of women in decision-making roles and to provide feminist perspectives in grassroots organizations such as NGOs, as well as in official governments, circles, and supernational entities like the UN. Now, before introducing the first speaker, I would like to say a few words in the logistics of the webinar, which I will explain in English and Spanish in case some of the viewers have not activated the interpretation feature yet. I repeat, in Spanish, I will now explain how to use the simultaneous translation function in detail so that our listeners can activate it according to their preference and to listen to a language or another. In this webinar, we have with us an interpreter who will translate from Spanish to English and to English from English to Spanish. This is how the interpretation feature works. At the bottom right of your screens, you should see a tab with the name interpretation with a rounded symbol, with a symbol of the world, which you can switch from English to Spanish or vice versa to listen to the interpreter. If you wish to listen to the simultaneous translation, click on the tab of the language translated. You will listen to the language you have selected and you can change the translation feature in each of the panels. We suggest you mute the original audio so as not to get confused with both speakers at the same time. Now, in Spanish, we have with us an interpreter who will translate the translation from Spanish to English from Spanish to English. At the bottom right of your screens, you will see a tab with the name interpretation next to a symbol of the circle and with two buttons, Spanish and English, which you must select to listen to the translation. You will listen to the language you choose, Spanish or English, and you can change this function in each of the panels of our three panelists. We recommend you mute the original audio so as not to confuse both speakers at the same time. Now, back to English. To make sure that you are all familiar with Zoom, we invite you to put your questions in the question and answers box, chat box here in the application. We will then collect these questions and ask them to the speakers during the question and answer session, which will take place following the three panels. Please make sure you mention to which speaker you would like your question to be addressed to. And now, without further ado, I will now leave the floor to my friend Marla, who will introduce the first speaker of the day. Thank you, Juan. Our first speaker is Melani Regimbal. Melani Regimbal resumed her duties as the director of UN Lyric after 18 months working at the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, where she served as head of field coordination contributing to the Colombian peace process. Prior to joining the United Nations in 2006, Ms. Regimbal worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Canada. She was founding member of the Canadian mine action team in Ottawa and continued to work on human security, disarmament, and non-proliferation matters at the permanent mission of Canada to the Organization of American States, OAS, as an alternate representative to Washington DC. Regimbal's presentation today focuses on various mechanisms of disarmament in Latin America and the Caribbean, examining the Resolution 65-69 and the UN Secretary General Disarmament Agenda and its link to the Sustainable Development Goals. Melani, over to you. Good morning and good afternoon to all of the participants. Thank you, Marla, for that introduction and Juan and Anat and Mian for all of the support that you have provided us over the last few weeks in making this seminar possible. We are delighted to have an association with Scrap Weapons and are thrilled and excited to see new generations of disarmament ambassadors working on these issues. It is something that is absolutely key. Disarmament is often seen as the old boys club where things go away and die and it becomes stagnant. So to see wonderful, fresh, young, female voices excited about these issues is something that we are thrilled with. I want to focus my efforts or my few minutes this morning to talk about and highlight the wonderful work that women in Latin America and the Caribbean have undertaken at the international stage to ensure that women both have a role, a voice and a say in what happens in disarmament issues and to make the very, very important link between disarmament, arms control, non-proliferation issues with development in our everyday lives and our security and our sustainability. I think that as although I did say at the beginning that disarmament has often been viewed as the old boys network in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is a slightly different story and very encouraging. You have with us today two pioneers Ms. Torné and Ms. Velasquez who have been working on these issues and dedicated their professional lives to ensuring that disarmament is seen as a very likely and necessary tool to ensure that public policies on citizen security, on development are adopted and adopted and at the forefront of governments. There's no secret, Juan said it very clearly in his introduction. Latin America and the Caribbean region are disproportionately affected by small arms and light weapons and homicide rates and all of the issues that come with the proliferation of these weapons, whether it is high crime rates, insecurity, issues pertaining to sustainable employment, schools, small arms and light weapons can have both a very negative and a positive impact on what we are doing and in everyday life small arms and light weapons affects citizens of the region. So not only our homicide rates and crime rates higher in our region than in others, I think it is very important to put a very positive spin on these issues to underline the fundamental role that women have played in ensuring that these issues remain at the forefront of government agendas. Latin America and the Caribbean was the first region to really insist at the international level with the international tools that armed violence be linked to development goals, that there was a direct correlation between the level of violence, the level of homicides, the level of availability and proliferation of weapons with the quality of development, the sustainability of socioeconomic health issues, school, I mean it really has an impact on everything and so to incorporate small arms control to public policy in general is something that has a positive impact on development and for years that connection was not seen but the Latin American and Caribbean voices insisted that it be this way and as a result in Agenda 2030 the SDG Agenda, Goal 16 has a very specific set of indicators that deals with illicit flows and proliferation and trying to lower those rates so that we can make the connection and understanding that if you address proliferation then that allows you to address other issues of development and to do it well. So although within the SDG Agenda Agenda 2030 which has a number of goals, Goal 16.4 is the only one that addresses directly the issue of small arms, we now know that in order to implement Goal 16.4 and address it properly and if it is addressed properly it gives us the ability as states to implement the other objectives. So objective Goal number five, Goal number four, whether you're dealing with education, whether you're dealing with gender rights and women's rights, these are all issues that deal and have a link related to small arms because we now know that every time that there is a firearms or a homicide victim that goes into a hospital the fact that the proliferation of those weapons have brought in incidents and victims into hospital care that is hospital care and funding that is taken away from other health priorities to address the issue of armed violence. And so that connectivity is something that has always been very important for the region and Latin America and the Caribbean were pioneers in making that connection. Now more directly related to why we are gathered here today and when we look at feminism through a disarmament lens is also the very pioneering work that our Latin American and Caribbean colleagues have done related to resolution 6569 which is on women, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. This is a resolution which has a global is a general assembly resolution so it has a global mandate. It has been approved by consensus for the last decade and it is a resolution that was presented and introduced by the government of Trinidad and Tobago and that has unanimously received support on a yearly basis for the last 10 years and the sole purpose of this resolution is to ensure that governments take the time to ensure that women have the seat at the table. That women are part of the decision process on small arms and light weapons and to make quality and have a plan numbers game to ensure we have enough women on these commissions and have a role but rather to ensure that the perspectives are completely integrated and are able to be implemented. That is to say that we cannot address an issue holistically if you only have half of the team being trained. We were talking just before the session started about football. If you're training your football team to go to the Olympics you're not going to train just half of the team. You're going to train the entire team so that you can have success at the Olympics and maybe win a gold medal. So it's the same issue. You cannot address successfully issues of proliferation of weapons, issues of arms control, public policies on these issues if you only have part of the issue here. Now I don't want to focus too much on the negative impacts although this is something that is very real. We know that our region is not only disproportionately affected on homicides but also on femicides. 14 of the 25 top countries with levels of femicides are actually from Latin America and the Caribbean. So this is a very, very real issue. Women are disproportionately affected by gun crime and gun violence and we need to address this and we need to ensure that the policies that are in place take these things into consideration. And what happens when you only have half of the team present or sitting at the table is that these things don't come into play because you can't see or you can't advocate for something that you don't know or understand and so we have to really have all of the actors sitting at the table to go forth. So to wrap up not only have Latin American states been at the forefront of disarmament and non-proliferation in the region in general terms but also specifically in the issues of small arms proliferation and making that connection to disarmament and development but also women themselves have been at the forefront of arms control measures and disarmament policies in the region trying to impact at the global levels through international instruments and the implementation of those because instruments are only instruments. They come to life when you start implementing them and putting them into action into your national policies. So we've been at the forefront on that front but we've also as you and Lyric as a disarmament center we've had the privilege of working with women professionals who have dedicated their career to to these issues for the past 20 30 years and for the past 10 years we have also celebrated their contributions through a women forces of change publication we're now up to our fourth edition where we highlight the role and the contribution of women to ensure that we continue to foster these connections and I think that the work that just in conclusion the work that scrap weapons and associations such as yours and academic groups you know the SG's agenda has four pillars dealing with disarmament. Disarmament to save humanity disarmament that saves lives which is the one that really addresses small arms issues disarmament for future generation and strengthening partnerships for disarmament scrap weapons and the work that you are doing here today and these types of seminars and the academic research and advocacy that you are doing contribute to all of the SDG goals but in particular to these two I think that disarmament for future generations is absolutely clear we need you to take on these issues we need you to support us and to be the voice of reason for states to bring them on board on on these issues so I want to congratulate all of you for this fantastic opportunity this great effort and for putting panels like this together and to raising awareness and interest amongst a new generation of of leaders both men and women but in particular we're delighted to see so many young women passionate about these issues and willing to make a difference and work with us and I encourage all of you to to follow us to to reach out to the UN centers and the UN family the UN works for you the UN is you and so you have the right and the obligation to reach out to us and demand of your institution your global network to get things done so so use us use our let your voices be heard with us thank you so much Marla and Juan and that will be my wrap up for today thank you thank you Melanie for such a wonderful presentation think that your presentation shows an entourage in picture of the role of women in Latin America even even as they struggle to shape the original and indeed as you said the global conversation around issues related to discernment and to prevent it from being as you said an all-boys club you highlighted the importance of the link between sustainable development and the SDG goals and discernment of small weapons and how Latin America and the Caribbean and in particular women within this continent have pioneered these efforts in the framework of resolution 6569 now back to the audience we remind you we take this occasion to remind you that you can submit your questions in the Q&A question and answers chat box and we'll be delighted to address them by the end of by the end of the third of the three panels and now without further ado we will move to our second speaker Desi Tournet Desi Tournet the floor is yours thank you very much I will speak in Spanish because it's my language and it's very easy for me to express better in Spanish maravillosas experiencias que ya hemos estado a otras oportunidades compartiendo esto de debatir de poner en común lo que hemos sido aprendiendo me gustaría hacer dos puntualizaciones antes de entrar al centro de la exposición o lo de tratar de rastrear esa pregunta importante porque las mujeres porque el feminismo en estos temas me gustaría remontarme a lo que fue la experiencia latino americana en los años 70 porque explica mucha cosa con la aplicación de lo que fue la doctrina seguridad nacional que ha llevado a que el tema de las armas su compra su venta su control que dara bajo la éxica de las fuerzas armadas y policiales completamente por fuera de los mandos políticos de la sociedad si bien mucho menos y de la mujer en y que hablar no entonces eso fue un décadas de imponer una forma de trabajar el tema que lo que haciera cubrir lo de secreto dejar el mando justamente las fuerzas armadas y policiales que tenían el control de la tenencia del porte del registro todo ubicado y sigue en muchos países y rastiamos en américa latina vamos a ver que sigue bajo control militar o policial y no bajo control civil esto es un tema muy importante a debatir porque se mantiene el poder de las armas para quienes las obstentan como derecho del estado y ahí abro la primera preocupación que es la de abrir los canales a la información que la gente sepa dónde están cuantas son quién tiene derecho quién no tiene derecho a portar y a tener y esas cosas siguen en muchos rincones de nuestra américa latin y del caribe ocultas bajo el secreto mal lixima cosa y chiqui es decir el tratado de comercio de armas trata de velar esto y por más que ha sido ratificado por la enorme mayoría de nuestros países la implementación nacional del mismo deja mucho que decir aún en muchos países pero esto se complementa puesto es que mirarlo en integralidad en la totalidad el que esto se complementa con una cultura que impregna nuestras sociedades de hace mucho tiempo que tiene que ver con el predominio masculino sobre estos temas no es sólo las fuerzas armadas y policiores sino de los barones el tema de las armas por más que algunas mujeres manejen las armas ellos no tienen nada que ver con quién tiene el poder y cómo el ejerce y acá viene la segunda puntualización que a mí me parece clave en este tema de por qué las mujeres sino cualquiera sino las mujeres con compromiso de género deben en mis cuersen estos temas y es que justamente el ejer el estilo de ejercicio del poder que impregna nuestras sociedades en lo que es el patriarcado es un estilo de dominio de sujeción de falta de democracia de desconocimiento de la diferencia de no respeto a la diversidad de atropezo el poder de ejerzo yo tengo la autoridad mando y digo como se hacen las cosas al punto de que las vidas no sólo de las mujeres pero de las mujeres también son este patrimonio de algunos barones extremadamente violentos se entrelazan estas dos cosas una doctrina de la seguridad que coloca el control de las armas en los mandos militares y policiales con la lógica patriarcal en donde existe una manera de ejercer el poder que tiene sujeción dominación de precio falta de equidad violencia bueno y así estamos viviendo algunas situaciones aún en américa latina y el caribe que responden a este modelo de cómo se ejerce el poder y entonces las armas que siempre se ante sobre todo el small arms no que se ha tenido de una cosa bueno de las armas no hace nada es la persona que las maneja hay que decir la verdad que por hoy a veces se obvia y es que las armas se han hecho para matar y que han generado como lo decía muy bien melanie y lo repitió además Juan un enorme pero enorme este dolor en nuestras poblaciones de muerte y no sólo de muerte de lesiones el otro día en mi país se armó un tiroteo este entre bandas y resultó gravemente herida que estaba un peleando por su vida una niña de 9 años que vivía en el barrio que nada tiene que ver entonces estos dos componentes yo quería dejar los claros antes de entrar a por qué las feministas tenemos que estar en esos temas porque creo que el feminismo es un movimiento que justamente trae la lógica contraria la lógica de la equidad de las relaciones democrática de dirimir en diálogo y en buenos términos los conflictos interpersonales que puedan haber el el reclamo y el respeto de los derechos de todas y todos y no de sólo el la volición de la supremacía de un género sobre otro el respeto a lo diverso que es lo que le da riqueza a nuestras sociedades como muy bien lo dice la meta a la que hacíamos referencia recién la vacía melanie no este esas sociedades equitativas e inclusivas que son una de las metas del milenio justamente para lograr entonces fíjense que si nosotros vamos a mirar según los mujeres los datos que tenemos sólo el 22 sólo hay 22 países en el mundo que tienen o jefas de estado presidenta el resto está gobernado por varones y a nivel de los parlamentos que es lo que me gusta señalar ahora porque ha sido mi rol durante mucho tiempo con el crecimiento que ha habido hemos logrado sólo llegar al 25 por ciento de las bancas que hay en el mundo este dato lo maneja la unión interparlamentaria mundial entonces estamos todavía subrepresentadas en los ámbitos de decisión yo siempre cuento una anécdota de una vez que cuando parlamentaria muy joven recién iniciada fuimos a chile pa amela y tuvimos un encuentro cuando era presidenta la doctora michelle bachelet no y ahora estamos contentísimos porque michela que llega a presidenta y me encantó de mujer y bueno no recibió en la moneda que tiene todo un símbolo y una de las preguntas que le hicimos a michel fue a ver qué nos aconseja qué qué cosa las mujeres que ingresamos ahora a la política con lo dificilísimo que es no es una historia de pelea continuada por ganar los lugares y dar pruebas a ver si tenemos la capacidad o no los varones no tienen que dar ninguna pero ya no hacen capaces nosotras tenemos que estar dando pruebas todo el tiempo de nuestra capacidad y recuerdo que michel dijo no se dediquen a los temas que le depositan a las mujeres metanse con los temas difíciles ya fue ministra de defensa en este momento había llegó a la presidencia y a mí me quedó teniendo aquello y la verdad de ver las consecuencias en america latin el caribe no solo este luché encarecidamente porque mi país tuviera un buen trabajo internacional a nivel de las naciones unidas en impulsar los acuerdos que como muy bien decía melanie este america latin el caribe jugó un rol muy importante en el avance de las normativas internacionales sino de este generar conciencia en porque quien el otro tema no solo el ingreso de las mujeres con otra forma de relacionarse del poder con el poder de ejercer no de compartir no de con ese ámbito de ansia de poder sino de compartir de crear equipo de buscar las soluciones coordinando con las mujeres de la sociedad civil con las mujeres diplomáticas con todo el espectro posible este era necesario batallar en la política quien va a resolver estas cosas donde se votan las leyes donde se ratifican los grandes esfuerzos que se hacen este a nivel internacional en los parlamentos por eso mi inclusión desde el vamos en la institución que hoy representó que es el foro parlamentario contra las armas pequeñas y era que es yo creo que sin querer absolutamente la única organización específica de parlamentarios que trabaja sobre este tema y es una lucha que no hay que claudicar es permanente está muy bien los niveles que se logran a nivel de naciones unida pero yo sabe que soy muy atrevida para algunas cosas suelo decir que a nivel internacional nuestros representantes son casi todos muy progresistas el problema es cuando llegan al nivel nacional y tienen que aplicar la ley este en los territorios a nivel nacional lo que con grandes discursos aprobaron a nivel internacional y ahí es donde yo creo que el trabajo que ha hecho el foro con los parlamentarios todo el mundo fundamentalmente en mi región en América Latina y el Caribe para lograr esas cosas pidamos los informes sepamos donde están con gamos en la ley quien tiene derecho y quien no tiene a tener armas como inciden la vida de los jóvenes por eso la verdad estoy encantada de estar trabajando con el scrap team porque vieron que uno ya se pone veterana y necesita que los jóvenes agarren la bandera y reclamen su derecho a decir cómo quieren vivir y mi trabajo en el foro parlamentario que me ha permitido conocer parlamentarios de todo el mundo por más que hablen otros idiomas y vivan en otros continentes las desgracias y el sufrimiento es exactamente el mismo he escuchado intervenciones de colegas en áfrica en asia en europa en europa el este en américa latina en el caribe y en todos lados lo único que trae la proliferación indiscriminada de armas es dolor hacia los pueblos miren no me voy a meter en camisa de 11 varas pero si voy a pegar un tilde para que miren lo que está sucediendo en colombia por él la este indiscriminada de pliegue de armas de un lado del otro el sufrimiento hacia los pueblos entonces hay que dedicarse con tesón son muchos años yo solo una experiencia personal a mí me ayudó mucho naciones unidas a conocer la realidad mundial pero también a redactar la ley que presente y que luego este el ejecutivo acompañó y se volvió ley en el uruguay que fue un gran avance pero si no se trabaja en coordinación la sociedad civil las organizaciones de mujeres las representantes diplomáticos lo internacional es muy difícil el avance y me parece que ahora atravesado nuestro continente latinoamericano y el caribe otra vez por temas de seguridad ciudadana empieza a emerger nuevamente el peligro del retroceso en las lignaciones que habíamos logrado avanzar en el control del porte la tenencia de armas por lo tanto bueno y yo seguiré mientras tenga energía peleando este por lograr esa sociedad pacífica este que las mujeres sabemos conformar y que venimos hace tanto tiempo yo he aprendido muchísimo de las mujeres este y pienso seguir aprendiendo pero quiero que la bandera la agarre yes thank you thank you so much daisy it's really amazing to hear these great insights on the why behind women's participation in disarmament from breaking the democratic approaches and also to the claim of respect that both men and women matter thank you also for highlighting these two major concerns the state security and the what the power of weapons embedded in law and policy enforcement from one side and the patriarchal dominant narrative most importantly we really thank you for providing us with these concrete steps to make sure that these laws are implemented by our governments and how to monitor the process of implementation as as citizens as well as as politicians just a reminder that daisy tourney is the president of the parliamentary forum on small arms and light weapons she served as minister of the interior in her country from 2007 to 2010 and she was the first woman to have been appointed to that post in uruguay she's also the she drafted also the firearms law adopted in 2014 in her country the main areas she prioritizes on our gender public safety childhood and education thank you so much daisy to have you among us today um just a reminder that the participants um that the translation function is available at the bottom of your screen to switch to your preferred language also be reminded to submit your questions to the q&a function now we move to the our third and final speaker for today's webinar pamela belasquez pamela is the founder of saflat latin american and caribbean network of professionals in international humanitarian law and humanitarian disarmament in the region pamela has been working for over 20 years in advocacy to advance the humanitarian disarmament to prevent human suffering and enhancing the protection of civilians from various types of weapons that inflict collateral and unnecessary harm she has contributed to world peace by participating in several international coalitions and this including the campaign to ban landmarks cluster munition and control of arms coalition a campaign to abolish nuclear weapons and also she's part of the international network on explosive weapons pamela will discuss what saflat is and similar movements in this region led by women and she will also address the arms trade and the perspectives from women and girls on this issue pamela the floor is yours marla started with the convention to ban munitions in racimo from that experience this group of professionals who worked in incidents intervention research in the disarmament process we realized that there was a synergy that has to do with collaboration and that we were much stronger working together our efforts to have a greater impact on our region inspired by the resolution 66 290 of the UN General Assembly in 2012 the human security is based on the right of people in particular those whose rights have been violated to live in freedom and with dignity free of fear and misery in equal opportunities to enjoy all their rights and develop fully human potential the human security demands central response in people oriented to strengthen the protection and empowerment of all people and community and recognize the interrelation between peace development and human rights then the human security demands greater collaboration and as they have mentioned association with the governments international organizations regional and civil society for us the humanitarian disarmament is fundamental and we have participated in many disarmament processes as a group and two of these of these campaigns have received the Nobel Peace Prize the campaign against anti-personnel mines and the campaign against nuclear weapons and curiously these campaigns have been led by women then for us it is important for me today in the name of celak being here to talk about the role of women from civil society to advocate against the use of conventional weapons because there are different factors that interrelate from the context and it is not the same if we are talking about a rural or urban area the age the class the race or if there is a degree of discapacity all this is important to have in consideration to understand the effects that weapons have on women and children figures that are terrible and we have already talked about violence in Mexico between 2007 and 2018 the homicides of women with firearms in their houses increased by 200 percent and the women's homicides in public life by 500 percent this added to what is happening in central america or in colombia we see that the rate of violence against women is very high and I would like to put a little bit of context of what have been the issues that have been led by women in recent years in the year 2015 the crime of throwing up paes a 14-year-old teenager who was pregnant and was murdered by his boyfriend, the Argentine journalist marcelo ajeda who intervened that we are not going to raise the voice they are killing us and so he began to digest even less we want to live this was a transversal movement of women who took the streets of argentina and who sought to visibilize gender violence and concentrate on the necessary changes and this wave was followed by the series of countries of our region in 2017 the movement me too that emerged on social networks also managed to create a common knowledge around the predatory behavior of powerful men and break with a standard accepted this fact left the balance of power that in the first instance expose women to sexual abuse and allowed many women to break in silence in 2019 in Chile in the middle of social strangeness a collective of women called theses and performed a performance that was called a violator on your way the song the choreography and the iconography became a worldwide and multitudinary phenomenon and it was replicated even in Turkey by the parliamentarians for 20 parliamentarians who adopted this manifesto to protest against the violence of women who were repressed by the police in Istanbul and recently in 2020 the law of abortion was approved in Argentina and so the women who wanted to interrupt their pregnancy could do it legally secure and free in the health system adding to countries such as Uruguay our colleague daisy cuba gullana gullana francesa then the women created a common knowledge of the situation that lives has required these public rituals marches media events and other experiences shared that have the capacity not only to persuade people but to show the violence that women affect in a different way men also have a catharsis for us at the regional level and it has allowed it has allowed us to recognize systemic violence and realize that we are not alone and what does it mean to address the effect of the small and light weapons of a gender perspective it means to recognize that the weapons do not affect men and women in the same way and that so many men and women as we have mentioned we have the same right to participate in initiatives oriented to control the use of these weapons women in general have a different posture than men in front of the weapons we feel like a threat to our security and we are not so prone to having a weapon in our home as a defense system but who has the weapons and as I mentioned not only in terms of legislation leadership but who has the weapons today their professions are in the hands of men the majority of the people who work in races that use the weapons are men in the military police and private security the majority of the people who use the weapons for recreational purposes are men in the case of sports shooting or the house or the majority of the perpetrators of violence with weapons are men even these young people especially in Central America who to get certain status positions or economic attainment have been linked to toxic masculinity leading to unnecessary risks and adopting conducts that have to do with that the weapons are associated with power and with what it is to be a man then the perspective of gender in the process of small weapons is important in addition to being a bandit established in the international instruments allows women to go positioning our place around human rights to development and security that affects us and guarantee that the measures of attention and repair to the victims include the perspective of gender because we are affected in different ways especially regarding our risks the needs and priorities and that we are fully incorporated in decision making as daisy has done a job and for many years so that the voice of the women is there what do we do as civil society and civil and civil that governments sign these treaties but also and here I say that it is the most complex work for us is that governments comply with their commitment to the local level to raise awareness about the risks of women and girls associated with proliferation, possession and the use of small weapons and contributing in the debate of the political changes in this matter to monitor the implementation of international and regional and national policies in terms of incorporation of the perspective of gender and link with the small and light weapons to ensure that the impact on women and girls of all initiatives control of small and light weapons is contemplated in each stage from diagnosis, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and to ensure that women in all our diversity participate in the design and implementation monitoring and evaluation of the initiative of gun control and something very important to encourage women's political participation their inclusion in the process process of decision making and leading women in the field of relative politics to the small and light weapons this area has been considered a masculine domain if we already see that the representation in the parliament in the sphere of the government or in different areas is made by men then guarantee that there are laws and that they are implemented against the political violence that leads to inclusive physical, sexual and female violence that affects our region so much work with the survivors and the families of the victims of the affected communities and thus ensure that the specific concerns of women and girls are expressed both on a local, national and international level and create capabilities in matter of gender and security by facilitating dialogue and negotiation processes between local communities that are the ones that suffer the most violence and the fundamental institutions to ensure that participation and the knowledge specialized by women are taken advantage of actively in decisions related to the control of the small weapons and promote a systematic effort to gather closed data we have not taken into account the issue of small and light weapons that the data is not considered closed by sex and by age then there are certain measures that we could take about the direct and indirect effects that the small and light weapons produce the participation of the civil society in the control of small and light weapons is fundamental for the local profession and to connect with the programmatic that affects women and girls and increase local support in the control activity we need to be there the crisis caused by the covid threatens several of the achievements achieved by women our rights are also threatened by the recruitment of the situation of poverty the conflicts of the absence of resources and the reorientation of the start-up is far from the issue of security or the construction of the peace according to the data received by the sepan the covid will probably leave 118 women in latin america in a situation of poverty and if we add that women are in a situation of greater risk of general violence based on gender given to the lack of opportunities to confinement and the lack of resources we have to turn on all the alerts and put in consideration that this pandemic is taking effect for women we have many challenges ahead so that women participate actively and protagonists in this process and I am happy that there are many young women here today and I invite you to be part of it raise your voice and do not permit other people to make decisions for you thank you very much thank you thank you thank you amela i think that your intake about the role of civil society and women led movement and non non-governmental organizations in latin america and the caribbean was very insightful and very topical too it is particularly relevant in a time in which there is a lot of talk about national security but less so about human security especially when it comes to women and and girls who are disproportionately affected as you mentioned by the use of smaller night weapons in latin america and the caribbean your examples of how of women led campaigns in argentina in chili and mexico among others showed that women from the civil society can contribute to momentous political and social change in the continent and to increase the awareness of the needs of a feminist perspective in arms control we will open the floor to a moderated i would say question and answers uh we request the audience to add some questions through the question and answers function through chat box some of them have already been pouring in we remind you that you can write the questions in spanish or english in the chat box and we will be able to address them in any of vote languages i believe we could start with one from from from the from the from the audience which has asked about especially for pamela if you all agree to start with that one which is about pamela what do you think is the role that can be played by international organizations to move from the masculine and machoistic uh understanding of security to one of inclusivity and peace especially given the weaknesses in the enforcement of international law and norms onto domestic state policies affect us in a different way to men than women so therefore there is silence if there are men taking the decisions if there are men controlling the weapons if there are men defining what are the steps and monitoring will be given because there is a patriarchal paradigm because there is a way to understand that those are the relevant elements then as more women are integrated and the perspective of gender is integrated the perspective of the survivors is integrated the perspective of communities affected by how violence affects the girls and women in different stages that voice has to be present in not only in international negotiations that as Daisy said are very progressive but at a local level in the countries the great challenge that we have the organizations of civil society is to be able to carry out concrete and real actions that are in charge of the needs the requirements that women and girls have and this approach has to be given and persist because women the truth is that we have to constantly put emphasis on these issues then the more women we are involved in different spheres we will be able to put the position or the elements that are relevant for the perspective of gender in the protection of the civilians and of the affected communities because not only although women do not have weapons we are affected by the weapons if the women if their partner is arrested or is a victim the woman has to be careful the woman has to be in charge of a series of factors and is constantly demonstrating what their role is and showing how the violence as the weapons and how it affects us at all times then producing civilisation, disability, political incidents requires that we are in the different areas. Thank you so much Pamela it's really important to what you have just mentioned that these efforts so makers that women voices are being heard but these efforts should be made also at the national level in our particular own country. Thank you so much for your answer. Now I will direct the question to Melanie. How do you think the regional challenges which women face in Latin America differ from challenges in other regions? Thank you Marla. Well I don't think that it's a question of how different the challenges are I think as Daisy pointed out in her presentation the pain is the same the issues are the same it just happens to be that in Latin America and the Caribbean we are disproportionately affected by the proliferation of arms. There are more homicides in our region than in any other part of the world and this despite the fact that with the exception of one area there are no active conflicts within the traditional titles or definition of conflicts in our region and so the fact that this that you cannot as a citizen in Latin America and the Caribbean citizen security and security and the role of arms affect you in your day to day you cannot go around the country in any part of the world in our region and not see the arms they're there they're omnipresent and so it is something that is part of our culture part of our security response part of the problems that we're having and so finding solutions to this is something that is absolutely key and I think that this is why Latin America and the Caribbean have been at the forefront of the international stage to demand that these issues and that the connection between violence and arm violence and proliferation of weapons and development be made and so this is something that is very real we also have the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that we are countries and governments that are in peaceful democratic settings to make changes and to enforce at the national level that action really be taken and that the obligations that have been acquired at the international level be brought down to the national level and ensure that they are implemented and the way to do that is to always be the voice to always be there to participate to be actively involved and and I very much love the quote that Daisy mentioned from from Michelle Bachelet take on the issues that you're that you're told not to and so or don't limit yourself to just taking on and addressing issues that are denominated as women's issues be the voice be there and so I don't think it's so much an idea that we are affected differently I think it's just the magnitude of the problem is is distinct thank you so much Madani um yeah hopefully we with the efforts as you said in order to to solve the problem holistically we need the efforts of comprehensive efforts and to face our challenges so it's not about being like having a lot of challenges or different challenges it's about the magnitude and how we are able to collaborate together to face these challenges thank you so much and now I would love to ask um Daisy uh and this question might be directed to Daisy and Pamela so if you would love to both answer it what should be the focus of a gender responsive demand oriented in the interventions actions on the small and light weapons what we are calling sorority is the collaboration between women in the space that we are in this is essential that in an integral vision because not only does it reach with laws that have to be only with the weapons but that have to do with the violence of gender and how it is exercised with the limitations to violence and above all with the generation of consciousness in the political system but also in the citizenship and in the different settings so I would say that everything that is done to what is human security as Pamela said very well the laws that can be reinforced in terms of the guarantee of a free life of violence for women and children and what can be fundamental is for me the coordinated and integral work between the different levels the women who are at the level of the executive the women at the level of the political life the women in the civil society and to carry this issue that the women know where they have that they are main victims although they are more the barons that die due to the effects of the weapons in what is their daily life in the most dangerous place for a woman from Latin America and the Caribbean is her house it is not the street then that kind of thing seems to me that they are the ones that have to work I insist on integrity with the youth governments with the academics that many have contributed to the data and the political vision and just academic on the issues you have to end the society of information and that seems fundamental to me I would like later if they can at some point give an information and make an invitation of an activity that will see the next month and it seems very important but that when you say put we can we can arrange to say it maybe later or now but maybe I think that now would work ok ok just to review this together with the parliamentary forum and the latin-american parliament that is integrated by the parliamentarians of all latin america and the Caribbean this is going to be an activity in June of the security commissions that is going to accompany the parliamentary forum against the smaller and lighter weapons to review the marco law that built years ago with the collaboration of the parliamentary forum but not only that to advance in latin america and the Caribbean in the political system in the campaign of disarmament that is why it seemed important to me to put them in common because it is going to be an event that obviously we are going to do for the issues of the pandemic via zoom but which I would very much be interested in both a liré how scrap and others or in the head involved in the theme they had access because it seems to me that it is also a way to integrate the vision of the civil society of the international world to the parliamentarians who are going to be working on these issues so that they stick more to the needs of their people and meet the role that we have in the parliamentarians who represent those and the city thanks for allowing me to inform thank you so for all our speakers so for our attendees you have been formally invited I think we from scrabble so we believe that as they said the coordination and even this sorority that uh between uh people engaged involved especially young people indeed and to is very important to to in the struggle against disarmament especially when it comes to small and light weapons uh I think that we will move to the next question um this is uh this could be posed maybe to Melanie but I think that maybe Daisy and Pamela can also um provide their own opinions you have all mentioned how we increase transparency and uh can help bring accountability to weapons proliferations and and to their use and also how it can help to make weapons regulations more effective um people are increasingly able to monitor weapons worldwide using digital technologies to access and analyze data such as including from social media satellites etc so the question is do the panel is no examples of citizens and governments in Latin America and the Caribbean which are interested or which are involved uh in new open source monitoring thank you Juan um that is actually a very very interesting question um and I'm not 100% sure that I have the response uh I know that one of the basic principles and there are several countries in in the Latin American region that include civil society members or private sector entities into their national commissions and uh involve them so national commissions that are dedicated to small arms issues or control transfer arms control transfers um so that they are able to to monitor what is going on and be a part of the solution and have their voices heard but open source funding I mean other there are NGOs in in at the global level that are dedicated to these issues uh and and looking at monitoring and um but any examples of Latin American and Caribbean countries where they've done come up with open source um I don't I'm not aware of it I don't know Camila or Daisy have um have information on joint civil society government alliances that permit for uh these types of open source transparency issues other than the good practice of including civil society voices and members to national commissions that have an impact and a voice uh in the decisions and the public policies that are adopted on on arms control um so I I I'm taken aback by the question crucial in the theme of that which ends up being presented because it is one of the central topics for the real advance of these issues that is transparency and the democratization of the data to what I was referring to in my first intervention the secrecy to what it is I think in Latin America and the Caribbean many countries follow the problem of the lack of transparency despite the fact that in in the ATT there is explicit obligation of the states to represent the United Nations and inform the state of the situation with respect to what is stipulated in in in the treaty just as however as there is that disconnection is my personal position of the political system with these issues there is little demand about the governments both of civil society as well as of the parliamentarian government para que los estados presenten los informes y los hagan públicos en muchos países en el mío hay por ejemplo lo que puede ser este en derecho de acceso a la información para cualquier ciudadano que pida pero sin embargo para determinados temas los ministerios pueden reservar la información porque lo consideran de seguridad nacional todo un debate este todo problema en el que hay que meterse no porque si no no avanzamos yo creo que yo lo que conozco como un bastante buen manejo de datos este me falta profundizar es un tema muy difícil son algunos ejemplos de argentina que ha trabajado muy bien en la ley de armas y en lo que son los registros y el manejo de los datos pero este insisto es un tema clave si no tenemos datos si no está transparentado como vamos a hacer para elaborar estrategias para compartir las consecuencias nefastas de la proliferación de armas sobre nuestras provolaciones y entonces genial pregunta porque moviliza y moviliza la sociedad yo yo quisiera agregar que sí que efectivamente varios tratados de hecho el tratado de comercio de armas tiene este reporte de transparencia y esto habla acerca de las medidas de confianza en mi país también existe la ley de transparencia donde podemos solicitar la información y también está reservada a que los ministerios consideren que es información de seguridad y entonces yo creo que estamos en una construcción de ese proceso no es fácil pasa por el compromiso de los países y porque la medida que tengamos datos efectivamente podemos ver la incidencia que hay de un posible de mí o y el attee que el control arm tiene un monitor pero tiene un monitor que tiene que es la reportabilidad que hacen los países y hay mucho como exige pedía a los países exigencia de que hagan estos reportes y también hay una contra parte de la sociedad civil no es tan fácil para muchas organizaciones tener acceso a estos datos porque esto pasa por aduanas por una serie y porque hay transferencias principalmente cuando las están de paso las las las partes o componentes de armas entonces hay mucha información que todavía falta y es relevante que que hagamos la incidencia de que se transparente eso para que podamos tener un mejor monitoreo de los procesos si si puedo agregar Juan if I can just add that yes effectively each of the international instruments have reporting mechanisms installed and em embolded into them and these are mandatory but they do not necessarily have to be public and this is one of the big criticisms of the ATT reports that states can decide whether or not they are made public there is also we have the convention arms register which is another instrument that has been around for for the better part of of three decades like not a little bit more that also calls on states to make their reports their annual reports on transfers and possessions and things like that but it's in general if we go back to the original question of initiatives where government and civil society work together in a transparent way I am not aware of any good practices beyond what we have mentioned in the participation of national commissions but as Pamela and Daisy have said these are the big this is the initial phases of fostering that transparency and building that confidence and getting us forward my colleagues on on the chat we're telling me that we could make reference to perhaps all of the national observatories that there are on firearms observatory or victims and crime observatories where data is collected by civil society and government and and the data is exchanged it is not so much on the weapons and the transfers but rather on victimization and crime tendencies and so this is perhaps not a hundred percent aligned with your your question but is an indicator of mechanisms that are put in place to create that sense of of collaboration and transparency and to get access to data that is real and and and shared and then as at the global level as we were saying there are organizations such as CIPRI that take on open sources or the landmine monitor or the ATT monitor that do publicize on an annual basis then global figures that they that they put together and and compare what states are reporting and and going forth with that but a bilateral agreement between government and civil society on arms transfers in Latin America and the Caribbean I personally am not aware of an example but I hope that this is something that can happen very very soon thank you so much for all of your contributions it's always been a crucial debate about the state sovereignty and the state security versus human security and what's allowed to be public and to what extent we can reach this transparency thank you so much for your contributions I would love now to direct the my question to Pamela how can local level and international level advocacy on small and light weapons control be articulated more closely not just with the gender equality movements but also as anti-racist collectives then the all the organizations of civil society that work on the issue of violence against people or assistance to victims or with affected communities and that if I practically and in some way we are incorporating them because today the issues that do not convoke us will make us have this look at the intersectionality of the factors then particularly there are certain campaigns for example the campaign that we are working on the murder robot where elements such as technology and the droughts that come in artificial intelligence will affect men and women in a different way if they are for example white skin or brown skin and then it begins to happen to us or if there is any type of disability then the way we have to understand the world as an heteronormality or as a race in the case of civil society and with communities it always requires a much more systemic look and an approach that allows us to look at how poverty is, development, education, gender issues, race issues are interrelated. I do not know if I answer the question there but our focus is always on looking at all these factors because they are always relating to our work. Thank you Pamela indeed it is indeed important to connect those several claims by sectors and of the civil society especially those which traditionally have been more silenced. This actually connects to another question I think it connects quite nicely which is if any of the three panelists can provide their ideas on what feminist civil society can do to promote the awareness of the importance of women and providing a feminist perspective as we have discussed in the past hour provided and within the current conservative and nationalist environment all across Latin America. I'm not sure which one we'd like to start I think it can be directed to any of you if anyone wants to begin. I think that I mean this is probably more an advocacy issue than than than anything else but I think it's absolutely key that the voices keep being heard and keep being loud. The pendulum of governments also swings backs and forth and so change is is influenced over time and if you have a very conservative government in place at one time it should not inhibit your ability to be heard and to to be voiceless on on these issues but again this is more of an advocacy issue than not but I think it's the the need to have the voices heard and to to push for a feminist agenda is just as important if not more. Very briefly very briefly I think that precisely the feminist view on these issues makes us work on integrity and fight for a rights agenda that is not only the rights of women nor does it mean that feminism is exclusive to women but it is a movement that includes women including barons that have a different look at the exercise of power, of democracy, of participation, of diversity where they do enter in this rights agenda, the disabilities, the rights that the Afro-Defendants, the indigenous, all those populations that like us women have been vulnerable in their rights and there is no better thing than raising the voice and making it heard and I add to the need to show because what has been appearing and that I mentioned as different movements in the region or in different places implies each time to visibilize to show that something is happening that under the pattern of normality and that we have assumed as if it is like that things and start to put those spaces in the young particularly today you are called to make the voice of these movements and we as elders in this effort to collaborate and accompany them with our experience but they are you who start to see today why we have binary looks because it has to be man or woman but it can be a much larger diversity then to raise those things that as a society do not make so much sense and they invite us to look from another perspective and they will continue to appear many more things as Ana said as the voice of the abortion came out for our region is a subject possibly in other places this is not but you can decide on our bodies for women if it is relevant or the subject of violence as it affects us or how it will affect us this crisis of the pandemic in the development of women or the rights of all minorities who feel vulnerable indigenous afro descendents or those who are even religious then as it is opening up a much larger effect and being able to put those voices is something that is necessary thank you so much for all of your contributions i will now move unfortunately to our last question what lessons about nuclear weapons free zones can be learned from latin america and um maybe melanie if you can start and daisy and formula if you have anything to add i think the principal lessons to be learned from the experience of the nuclear free zone in in latin america and the caribbean which was one of the first ones at the global level is that it was a turning point in disarmament and on proliferation in which middle powers or states that were considered to be middle powers were able to take on decisive decisions on on non-proliferation and the fact that as a region they decided that it was absolutely pivotal to the peace and security of the region that they prohibit the development of nuclear weapons is something that was pioneering at the time it was seen for a long time that issues of non-proliferation should only be left to the nuclear powers and i think that the fact that a region that had some nuclear technology but was not one of the the top um holders of of nuclear weapons i mean the region didn't have weapons but the importance of bringing together middle powers to an issue that was pivotal that would not only have an impact on the regional security and prosperity but also on the global security and a commitment for all of the 33 states to say we will not acquire this we will not go forth on this i think set the tone and the agenda for other movements and even the most successful the very successful initiative from from from last few four or five years with the ICANN movement and the non-proliferation treaty and and the the new instruments that are in place where it showcases that there can be a commitment to non-proliferation and disarmament even if you are not one of the nuclear powers and i think that this is a commitment to saying that the hole is bigger than the individual is is something that can be put together for and and a lesson from this region to two other regions and as a matter of fact the Tratado de Tlatelolco and the nuclear free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean has served as a model for other regions to develop their own non-proliferation and nuclear free zones and so it was pioneering and very much aligned with the position of Latin American and Caribbean states to be at the forefront of of these issues at the global level and the regional commitments that came with it thank you so much unfortunately we come at the end of our webinar however it's not the end of our discussion on feminism leadership in disarmament we invite you to join us in our last webinar of our series in two weeks time and we just want to say that we are really glad to collaborate and to host this webinar in collaboration with you and Lyric it's been really great experience and really look forward to more collaborations as to how we can face and progress in the field of disarmament we would love to thank our panelists and raising incredible activists and politicians and also we want to thank our translator who joined us today and all of our attendees we look forward to engage in more discussion in our last webinar in two weeks time thank you so much