Statement: Sixth Session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Statement — Sixth Session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Latin American organizations members of the Fòs Feminista alliance, present at the Sixth Session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Montevideo in August 2026, wish to state the following regarding Resolution 6 adopted at that session.

We celebrate that the States of the region have reaffirmed the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development as the regional roadmap for the advancement of human rights in matters of population and development. Thirteen years after its adoption in this same city, the Consensus remains the most advanced agreement we have as a region on this agenda, and its recognition in the current regional context is something we celebrate.

We applaud that the resolution calls for strengthened compliance with the priority measures of the Consensus through specific actions, the adequate allocation of resources and the strengthening of institutional mechanisms for its implementation and follow-up.

We view positively the advances contained in the Resolution 6 of the Conference, such as the recognition of the rights of persons experiencing homelessness, identified as one of the population groups in the greatest situation of vulnerability, recognizing their autonomy and their effective participation in the design, implementation and evaluation of the policies that affect them. We likewise acknowledge the commitment to combat racism and racial discrimination, and to address the inequalities affecting people of African descent and Indigenous Peoples; the emphasis on the protection of girls, boys and adolescents from all forms of violence, including violence in digital environments, and the recognition of their progressive autonomy; and the willingness to work more decisively and cross-cuttingly on the rights of persons with disabilities. We also highlight that the resolution recognizes the reconfiguration of family types and the reduction in household size as part of the changes in demographic dynamics that States must take into account in the design and financing of public policies, including care systems and social protection systems.

We are grateful that the resolution recognizes the feminist movement, civil society organizations and youth networks as essential actors in the follow-up and implementation of the Consensus, and that it takes note of the declaration that emerged from spaces such as the Civil Society Organizations Forum and the Youth Forum.

Nonetheless, we consider it necessary to call for reflection.

We cannot let this moment pass without also considering the shift in the political priorities of the governments of the region regarding human rights, the guarantee of which is fundamental to the democracies and the sustainable development of our countries.

We view with concern the setbacks by several governments of the region in the implementation of comprehensive sexuality education, in universal access to modern, quality contraceptive methods, and in the effective recognition of people’s physical autonomy and of their right to decide over their own bodies and life projects, which is reflected in the limited regional progress on the decriminalization of abortion. We are also concerned by the persistence of pregnancy and motherhood in childhood and adolescence, which in our region continues to be a direct expression of State negligence owing to the lack of access to comprehensive sexual health and reproductive health services. To this is added the existence of social and institutional norms and practices that minimize or even justify sexual violence against girls and adolescents, as in the case of early unions.

We are concerned by the sustained increase in gender-based violence, by its manifestations in the digital sphere, and by the scarce institutional protection of social and feminist movements, in a context in which the shrinking of civic space and the delegitimization and persecution of the organizations that defend human rights have become a regional trend.

We are equally concerned by the weakening of civil society participation in multilateral spaces themselves. The restriction of access to negotiating rooms, the reduction of formal advocacy mechanisms and the decline in civil society participation in official delegations limit our capacity to influence the texts that subsequently define the policies affecting us, and erode the democratic quality of these processes. This Conference recognizes the feminist movement, civil society organizations and youth networks as essential actors in the follow-up and implementation of the Consensus, and urges States to ensure that their official delegations are inclusive, diverse and plural and include civil society representatives. We demand coherence between that recognition and the real conditions of participation: recognition on paper is no substitute for effective access to the spaces where decisions are made.

Each of these setbacks occurs in relation to priority measures that the States of this region have already agreed upon. We are not asking for new commitments: we are demanding compliance with those that already exist.

The inclusion of specific populations in the texts is not equivalent to their effective recognition. Advances in language are real only if they translate into public policies, budgets, institutions with the capacity to guarantee compliance, oversight and monitoring mechanisms, disaggregated statistical information and the effective participation of those who have historically been left out of decision-making.

We demand that these commitments do not remain on paper. The standard by which the feminist and women’s organizations of Latin America and the Caribbean will assess the path towards the next Conference, and its Presiding Officers meetings, is the preservation of what has been agreed, to implement what is pending and to advance on what has been won; and it is also the commitment we take on ourselves, as part of the civil society ecosystem, to remain active and sustain advocacy before our States and in regional and global spaces.