SUMMARY: The Collaborative’s CEO and Senior Fellow Connect FFP and Care at the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative’s Lyric Thompson and Marita Perceval joined leaders from government, civil society and multilateral institutions in Mexico City to reaffirm gender equality, women’s autonomy and the building of a comprehensive care system, shaping discussions around feminist foreign policy.

Credit: UN Women Caribbean

Credit: Marita Perceval

Mexico City, Mexico || From August 12-15, 2025, the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative’s Founder and CEO Lyric Thompson and Senior Fellow and former Special Representative for FFP of Argentina Marita Perceval shaped several discussions on the synergies between feminist foreign policy (FFP) and the care economy at events organized within the framework of the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico City. Perceval played a dual role as Senior Regional Advisor in the coordination of the Parliamentary Forum, an official parallel stakeholder forum aimed at consolidating the priorities and recommendations of numerous national and regional parliaments and unions regarding care policies, systems, budgeting and its recognition as a human right.

Hosted by the Government of Mexico and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in coordination with UN Women, the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean convened governments, civil society and intergovernmental bodies under the theme of “Transformations in the political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental spheres to promote the care society and gender equality.” The Conference culminated with ECLAC member states’ approval of the Tlatelolco Commitment: A Decade of Action to Achieve Substantive Gender Equality and the Care Society, which establishes a new foundation for ECLAC member states’ obligations regarding care, including the promotion of measures to overcome the sexual division of labor and to incorporate care considerations into national planning. The Tlatelolco Commitment is “a declaration of principles that Latin America and the Caribbean refuse to abandon their right to exist as a diverse, sovereign, supportive, and profoundly feminist region,” as noted by the Government of Mexico’s Secretary for Women, Citlalli Hernández Mora.

In recent years, FFPs have emerged as powerful and innovative frameworks through which states and regional bodies, notably in Latin America and the Caribbean, have championed economies of care and encouraged greater investment in gender equality and sustainable development.

Read on to learn more about the various conversations at the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean that Lyric, Marita and members of the Collaborative’s Global Partner Network for Feminist Foreign Policy convened and shaped to explore the synergies between FFP and the care economy.

OFFICIAL SIDE EVENT: Feminist Foreign Policies and the Care Society: Towards a Latin American Model to Advance Women’s Autonomies

Convened by the Government of Mexico, in partnership with the Government of Chile and the Government of Colombia, this event provided space for countries that have adopted FFPs or equality-centered diplomacy approaches to collectively reflect on opportunities to advance the care society internationally. The Collaborative’s Founder and CEO Lyric Thompson shared our Global Partner Network for Feminist Foreign Policy’s vision for FFP, one that could facilitate and strengthen intra- and inter-regional collaboration of FFP governments on the care agenda. The conversation featured representatives from Mexico, Chile and Colombia—countries that are using their FFPs to align the historical demands of social movements to advance a care society nationally, regionally and internationally. 

PARALLEL EVENT: Contributions of Feminist Foreign Policy to the Construction of Care Societies in Latin America and the Caribbean

Organized by Global Partner Network members Política Exterior Feminista en América Latina (PEFAL), Red Mexicana de Política Exterior Feminista and Observatório de Política Externa Feminista Inclusiva (OPEFI), in partnership with Paz y Seguridad para América Latina y el Caribe, this event explored how national and local policymakers and civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean have leveraged FFP to advance societies, economies and cooperative strategies that center care. Our Senior Fellow Marita Perceval drew from her experience as former Special Representative for FFP of Argentina and current experience as President of Feministas Sin Fronteras to help address the development of FFPs in the region and their contributions to the construction of care societies, a new paradigm that leads to inclusive and sustainable development and advances progress in the implementation of the Buenos Aires Commitment. The event also examined how the principles of transversality, intersectionality, inclusion and intergenerational dialogue, as well as the multi-stakeholder approach of feminist foreign policies, enrich the development of the care society agenda. 

Panelists and Moderator:

• Yanerit Morgan Sotomayor, Representative, Red Mexicana de Política Exterior Feminista (moderator)

• Daphne Cuevas Ortiz, Secretary of Women, Government of Mexico City

• María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, CEO, GWL Voices.

• Arlene Beth Tickner, Ambassador-at-large for Gender Issues and Global Feminist Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Colombia

• Marita Perceval, President, Feministas Sin Fronteras (Argentina) and Senior Fellow, Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative

• Elisa Gómez, Project Coordinator, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Mexico)

WORKING LUNCH: Building Alliances to Strengthen Capacities in International Negotiations

Organized by the Confederación Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Trabajadoras del Hogar (CONLACTRAHO), this working lunch convened representatives from CONLACTRAHO’s network of domestic worker unions to discuss opportunities, strengthen international and regional alliances and share best practices in effectively leveraging international negotiation spaces to advance the human rights of domestic workers from Latin America and the Caribbean. Our Senior Fellow Marita Perceval joined the working lunch, underlining the vital role that unions play in strengthening cooperation of civil society, parliaments and governments in achieving the ratification of relevant International Labour Organization conventions. Perceval also highlighted promising trends in normative regional human rights frameworks such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ recent adoption of Advisory Opinion 31—first introduced by Argentina in 2023 during her tenure as Special Representative—which recognizes care not only as a “basic, unavoidable and universal need” but as a stand-alone and interdependent human right. To this end, Perceval points to the opportunity to advance care as a human right in international negotiations through enhanced cooperation on the agendas set out by the Buenos Aires Commitment and the Tlatelolco Commitment.