On 24 February, to celebrate Paraguay's Women's Day, the Minister for Women launched the National Equality Plan that had been approved at the end of last year by virtue of Decree 936.

The plan contains a package of public policies for implementation between 2019 and 2024 promoting full equality between men and women.

The main areas covered in the Decree are as follows:

Specific goals

The regulation has the following specific goals: the elimination of all gender discrimination in law, the creation of conditions conducive to life without violence, equal access to justice, the implementation of mechanisms that enable women to access positions where they take public decisions, as well as the creation of favorable conditions for their empowerment and economic independence.

Key rights

The National Equality Plan recognizes five fundamental rights which have formed the basis for identifying areas for action to eliminate existing obstacles and achieve the goals set:

• Elimination of all discrimination in law against women
• Elimination of the obstacles and development of mechanisms giving women equal access in taking decisions in the public sphere
• Elimination of obstacles and creation of conditions conducive to life without violence and full enforcement of women's right to healthcare
• Elimination of obstacles and creation of conditions favorable to women's empowerment and economic independence
• Elimination of obstacles and creation of conditions that give women access to justice

Transversal rights

To underpin their key rights, the Plan also sets out four transversal rights intersecting the former, which contribute to their fulfillment. It requires specific targets to be set; these are:

• Equality between men and women as enshrined in the constitution
• Human rights-based approach
• Elimination of discriminatory stereotypes
• Intercultural and bilingual approach

Inclusion

Lastly, the Decree states that it will respond, first, to one of the key aspirations of the Agenda 2030 that "nobody will be left behind", and second, to the Committee's recommendations for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) made to the country in 2017, of prioritizing efforts for full access for women to their rights.

The plan will be assessed and supervised with technical assistance from UN Women and will be funded by a budget drawn up by the Ministry for Women.