In July of 1993, in Oaxtepex, Mexico, the Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network convened the first meeting on “Women and Population Policies in Latin america and the Caribbean”, attended by 70 women from 18 countries, setting the tone for the feminist debate in the region and initiating the full incorporation of their membership to the process, long before the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt, in September of 1994.
The LACWHN spread across the region the need of defining population policies in the context of development models based on social justice and equity. it promoted the idea that sexual and reproductive rights ought to be explicit and clearly formulated concepts, so that population policies can be defined from the perspective of women. it demanded responsibility from the states and civil society in ensuring the sexual and reproductive rights, as well as the need for women’s empowerment in the individual context, in families and societies and in the development of collective power.
