FEXLAW ABOGADOS Signs the 7 Principles of Women’s Empowerment

Empowering women to participate fully in all sectors and at all levels of economic activity is essential to:

• Build strong economies;
• Establish more stable and just societies;
• Achieve internationally agreed development, sustainability and human rights goals;
• Improve the quality of life of women, men, families and communities;
• Promote business practices and objectives.

Even today, guaranteeing the incorporation of women’s talents, aptitudes, experiences and energies requires the implementation of international actions and decisive policies. The 7 Principles for the Empowerment of Women offer a set of reflections designed to help the private sector focus on the key elements for promoting gender equality in the workplace, in the marketplace and in the community.

Improving and expanding the openness and incorporation of women through business policies and practices is subject to techniques, tools and skills that generate results. The Principles for the Empowerment of Women, developed through a multilateral consultative process and under the aegis of UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact), offer a “gender perspective” that allows business activity to measure and analyze ongoing initiatives, benchmarks, and evaluation practices.

Drawing on real-life business practices, the Principles are intended to help companies modify their current policies and programs – or create new ones, if necessary – to achieve the empowerment of women. In addition, the Principles also reflect the interests of governments and civil society and will serve to support the interactions generated between the parties involved, since gender equality requires the participation of all agents. UN Women, a leading organization in the fight for gender equality, puts several decades of experience at the service of this collaboration designed in conjunction with the United Nations Global Compact, in what is the world’s largest corporate civic responsibility initiative with the participation of 8,000 companies, as well as other involved agents present in more than 135 countries.

There is no doubt that in this increasingly globalized and interconnected world, the key to success lies in the use of all social and economic resources. But the progress achieved does not prevent women from continuing to face discrimination, marginalization and exclusion despite the fact that equality between men and women appears as an internationally recognized universal precept, as a

fundamental and inviolable human right. Almost all of the countries have ratified this value by recognizing the norms expressed in international rights treaties that articulate at the state level a wide range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. A series of documents underlines the state responsibilities and the protection of the human rights of women, indigenous populations, children, workers and disabled people. Furthermore, the ratification at the international level of documents, such as the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted by 189 countries at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, and the Millennium Declaration, adopted by 189 countries in 2000, also they contribute to the indispensable implementation of the human rights framework.

These international standards illuminate our common aspiration to enjoy a life where opportunities are equal for all, where people can live without being subjected to violence, exercise their right to legal reparation and compensation, and count on the states to comply with their obligation to respect and protect the human rights of women, men and minors, as well as to offer adequate public services, such as education and health.

These Conventions nourish national laws and allow the establishment of common values ​​adopted by all the world’s institutions. For their part, (and in close collaboration with their counterparts, governments, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations), leading companies try to apply these international standards in favor of the rights of individuals through the implementation of their programs and its policies specifically designed for this purpose. Their business commitment, which is reflected in the mission statement of the companies and which is supported by public monitoring of their policies and practices, demonstrates the growing awareness of the importance of these values ​​for economic activity and their communities.

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