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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
From: sgastete@u.washington.edu
Subject: Gender Communication: Declaration of the Latin American and Caribbean
 Regional Meetings
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 1994 00:19:56 GMT

Date: 10:02 am  Apr 22, 1994
From: mujeres@alai.ec

DECLARATION OF THE LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN REGIONAL MEETING
                    ON GENDER COMMUNICATION
                     Quito, April 9-10 1994

Women communicators from Latin America and the Caribbean
representing international, regional and national communications
networks, met in Quito, Ecuador, on April 9-10 1994, at the
invitation of the Agencia Latinoamericana de Informaci'on -ALAI-
and the World Association of Community Radios -AMARC-, with the
aim of reflecting on the role of gender communications in society
and of consolidating common processes designed to carry out joint
actions and formulate strategies for participation in the 4th
World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995).

We, the participants at this meeting, declare that:

In today's world, communications and information exert an ever
more decisive influence on the social, political and cultural
orientation of our societies.

The increasingly monopolic concentration of communications media
limits the exercise of the right of citizens to free expression
and access to information, particularly in the case of socially
marginalized segments of the population.  Moreover, without
information, there cannot be participation of citizens in
decisions of common concern.

In particular, there exists systematic discrimination against
women, whose actions, interests and movements and not taken into
account.

In this context, it is essential to promote the democratization
of communications and to affirm the role of gender sensitive
communications as an indispensible element in the consolidation
of democratic practices.

We reaffirm that gender sensitive communications, as a theme and
as a practice, are a strategic element in the advancement of
women and of their movements.

For the above reasons, we recognize the need to:

* Defend communicational practices based on social equality
between genders, that ensure freedom of information and
expression on diverse life-styles, sexual orientations,
reproductive rights.

* Stengthen criticism of negative and stereotyped messages and
images transmitted by the media, which reinforce gender
inequality and violence.  Promote a change in the image of women
in the media, in conjunction with women communicators in these
media.

* Through our work in communications, promote the improvement of
the economic, social and political situation of Afro-Latin
American, Afro-Caribbean and indigenous women, in recognition of
the ethnic and racial diversity of our region.

* Optimize the potential of gender communications networks in
order to increase the impact of proposals that emerge from women
and their movements.

* Strengthen networks of women communicators in the South and
their links with other organized sectors.  Promote North/South
dialogue among communicators in order to develop joint action in
the face of communications monopolies.

* Claim the right of access to new communications technologies,
as tools that favor more horizontal and democratic
communications.


In order to develop these proposals, we made the following
agreements for action and coordination:

1) Create a PERMANENT FORUM ON GENDER COMMUNICATIONS, of an open
and pluralistic nature, with the aim of coordinating activities,
exchanging information and creating a space for reflection and
debate on gender communications.

This proposal is based on respect for the autonomy of each
participating entity and on the firm conviction of the need to
promote complementary actions that promote the visibility of
gender communications in every sphere.

2) With relation to the 4th World Conference on Women, we agree
to:

* Formulate proposals, as women concerned with gender
communications, in international forums -in particular, in the
Regional Meeting in Argentina and the World Conference on Women-
in order to prioritize the issue of gender communications as an
integral part of the Agenda of these meetings.

* Organize Forums on Gender Communications in the Regional
Meeting in Argentina and in Beijing, so as to promote the
proposals formulated by women communicators in previous events,
such as: the Latin American Meeting of Alternative and Popular
Media (Quito, 1993); the Women Empowering Communication
conference (Bangkok, 1994); the Regional Meeting on Gender
Communications (Quito, 1994), among others.

* Make the claims of women's movements from the South more
visible.

* Support the proposal of a year of gender communications, as a
means of multiplying communicational spaces for women.

3) In response to the initiative of the Network of Afro-Latin
American and Afro-Caribbean Women, which has declared July 25 of
each year as the International Day of Afro-Latin American and
Afro-Caribbean Women, we propose July as a month of dissemination
of ethnic and racial themes.

Quito, April 10 1994

Andrea Cano, WACC; Katherine Anfonsi, RAIF; Thais Aguilar, SEM;
Maria Victoria Polanco, AMARC; Isabel Duque, ISIS; Alexandra
Ayala, FEMPRESS; Sally Burch, APC-Mujer/ALAI; Irene Le'on, ALAI-
Mujeres; Magdalena Adoum, Red de Mujeres en Comunicaci'on; Nelsy
Lizarazo, ALER; Marlem Rivadeneira, Red Juvenil Latinoamericana
para el Desarrollo Sustentable; Clorinde Zefir, Enfo Fanm;
Socorro Flores, Nicarao; Mariela Sala, Flora Tristan; Diana
Miloslavich, ALAI; Tachi Arriola, AMARC; Rebeca Sevilla, Conducta
Impropia; Carmen Vallejo, CDE-Mujer; Senaida Jansen, Red de
Mujeres Afro-latinoamericanas y y Afro-caribe~nas; Cecilia
Paredes, CEPAM.

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AGENCIA LATINOAMERICANA DE INFORMACION - AREA MUJERES
          Casilla 17-12-877, Quito, Ecuador
       Tel: (593 2) 505074 Fax: (593 2) 505073
             E-mail: mujeres@alai.ecx.ec
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ecuanex!alai!mujeres


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Art McGee [amcgee@netcom.com]
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