Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Uruguay rank among the highest in the world. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal with an equal age of consent since 1934. Anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people have been in place since 2004. Civil unions for same-sex couples have been allowed since 2008 and same-sex marriages since 2013, in accordance with the nation's same-sex marriage law passed in early 2013. Additionally, same-sex couples have been allowed to jointly adopt since 2009 and gays, lesbians and bisexuals are allowed to serve openly in the military.
As established in the Colombian Constitution of 1991, women in Colombia have the right to bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote ; to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to receive an education; to serve in the military in certain duties, but are excluded from combat arms units; to enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental and religious rights. Women's rights in Colombia have been gradually developing since the early 20th Century.
The Courts for Violence Against Women are Specialised criminal courtrooms associated to the Inquiry Courts, established by the Organic Law 1/2004 of Comprehensive Protection Measures against Violence against women. Extraordinarily these courts also have powers in the civil jurisdiction acting as Courts of First Instance and Inquiry. They are associated to the Judicial District, even though one court can be created to cover the area of two or more districts.
Domestic violence in Argentina is a serious issue. Since the 1990s onwards, the Government of Argentina has taken steps to address this problem. However, the policies of Argentina have been criticized for being weak, primarily due to focusing on civil, rather than criminal dealing with this form of violence, and for stressing conciliation between victim and perpetrator. The policy dealing with domestic violence has also been made more difficult due to the decentralized nature of the country: Argentina being a federal state with 23 provinces has caused significant regional variation between provincial policies on domestic violence, with women across the country having differing levels of protection.
The status of women in Argentina has changed significantly following the return of democracy in 1983; and they have attained a relatively high level of equality. In the Global Gender Gap Report prepared by the World Economic Forum in 2009, Argentine women ranked 24th among 134 countries studied in terms of their access to resources and opportunities relative to men. They enjoy comparable levels of education, and somewhat higher school enrollment ratios than their male counterparts. They are well integrated in the nation's cultural and intellectual life, though less so in the nation's economy. Their economic clout in relation to men is higher than in most Latin American countries, however, and numerous Argentine women hold top posts in the Argentine corporate world; among the best known are Cris Morena, owner of the television production company by the same name, María Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, former CEO and majority stakeholder of Loma Negra, the nation's largest cement manufacturer, and Ernestina Herrera de Noble, director of Grupo Clarín, the premier media group in Argentina.
The lives, roles, and rights of women in Chile have gone through many changes over time. Chilean women's societal roles have historically been impacted by traditional gender roles and a patriarchal culture, but throughout the twentieth century, women increasingly involved themselves in politics and protest, resulting in provisions to the constitution to uphold equality between men and women and prohibit sex discrimination.
The most pervasive violations of women's rights in Paraguay involve sexual and domestic abuse. On average one woman is murdered every 10 days. Although Paraguay has taken several measures to deal with this problem, including creating special police units for domestic violence victims, lack of adequate laws, as well as conservative attitudes within a male dominated society hinder progress.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Paraguay face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Paraguay, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for all of the same legal protections available to opposite-sex married couples. Paraguay remains one of the few conservative countries in South America regarding LGBT rights.
Violence against women in Guatemala reached severe levels during the long-running Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), and the continuing impact of that conflict has contributed to the present high levels of violence against women in that nation. During the armed conflict, rape was used as a weapon of war.
The status of women in Spain has evolved from the country's earliest history, culture, and social norms. Throughout the late 20th century, Spain has undergone a transition from Francoist Spain (1939-1975), during which women's rights were severely restricted, to a democratic society where gender equality is a fundamental principle. As such, during the past decades the position of women in Spanish society has greatly improved. Women in the broader Spanish population outnumber men by 900,000, totaling an estimated group of 24 million. Until the establishing of separation of church and state in 1978, the Catholic Church in Spain has played a major role with regard to official views on women's role in society.
Women in Panama are the women who live in or are from Panama. Panamanian women, by tradition, are Hispanic and they are treated as equal to men, accorded with "deference and respect".
Women in Uruguay are women who were born in, who live in, and are from Uruguay. According to Countries and Their Cultures, there is a "very high proportion" of Uruguayan women participating in the labor force of the South American country. The Uruguayan legislation maintains that the women of Uruguay have equal rights to power, authority, and privileges". In reality, however, women are still not occupying "higher economic, professional, political, social, and religious positions". In relation to the political arena, UN Women reported that a 2012 study made by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) ranked Uruguay as being "103rd out of 189 countries in terms of representation of women in Parliament". Uruguay low ranking is partly due to its low political participation of women: only 16% of members of Parliament are women as of 2014.
Rosa Julieta Montaño Salvatierra is a Bolivian attorney, human rights defender, woman's rights activist, feminist writer and a 2015 winner of the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award.
Violence against women in Mexico includes different forms of gender-based violence. It may consist of emotional, physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse. The United Nations (UN) has rated Mexico as one of the most violent countries for women in the world. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (INEGI), 66.1 percent of all women ages 15 and older have experienced some kind of violence in their lives. Forty-nine percent have suffered from emotional violence; 29 percent have suffered from emotional-patrimonial violence or discrimination; 34 percent from physical violence; and 41.3 percent of women have suffered from sexual violence. Of the women who were assaulted in some form from 2015 to 2018, 93.7 percent of them did not seek help or report their attacks to authorities.
Ni una menos is a Latin American fourth-wave grassroots feminist movement, which started in Argentina and has spread across several Latin American countries, that campaigns against gender-based violence. This mass mobilization comes as a response to various systemic issues that proliferate violence against women. In its official website, Ni una menos defines itself as a "collective scream against machista violence." The campaign was started by a collective of Argentine female artists, journalists and academics, and has grown into "a continental alliance of feminist forces". Social media was an essential factor in the propagation of the Ni Una Menos movement to other countries and regions. The movement regularly holds protests against femicides, but has also touched on topics such as gender roles, sexual harassment, gender pay gap, sexual objectification, legality of abortion, sex workers' rights and transgender rights.
Montserrat Boix Piqué is a Spanish journalist, considered among the most influential women in her country. In early 2000, she created and developed the concepts of social cyberfeminism, and a year later those of feminist hacktivism. Another of her main areas of work is gender violence and communication. She has also stood out as a defender of the right to communication and citizenship rights for women. Since 1986, she has been a journalist for the Information Services of Televisión Española (TVE), in the international section.
Sergia Galván Ortega is a Dominican feminist activist, teacher, and counselor. She has been active in the feminist movement since 1979. She was born in the provincial capital, Hato Mayor del Rey, in the Dominican Republic.
The Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity is a ministry of the Argentine Government tasked with overseeing the country's public policies on issues affecting women and gender and sexual minorities. The ministry was created in 2019, as one of the initial measures of President Alberto Fernández; the first and current minister is Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta.
Isabel Agatón Santander is a Colombian poet, lawyer, writer and feminist. Promoter of the Rosa Elvira Cely Law which defines femicide as a crime in Colombia, she integrated the editorial commission of Law 1257 of 2008 about violence against women. She was a judge in the Tribunales de Conciencia de Justicia Para las Mujeres in Nicaragua (2015) and El Salvador in which they tried cases of sexual violence and femicide convened by the Red Feminista frente a la Violencia contra las Mujeres (REDFEM) and the Red contra Violencia of the respective countries.
Femicide, broadly defined as the murder of a woman motivated by gender, is a prevalent issue in Latin America. In 2016, 14 of the top 25 nations with the highest global femicide rates were Latin American or Caribbean states. 4,445 women were recorded victims of femicide in the region in 2021, translating to the gender-based murder of about one woman every two hours in Latin America.
