On 4 April the Peruvian government’s Women & Vulnerable Population Groups Ministry (MIMP)  published its National Gender Equality Policy to tackle the causes and effects of structural discrimination against women, in compliance with the Peruvian state’s international obligations on human rights, state policies set out in the National Agreement, the Strategic National Development Plan and the Peru Prepares for 2030 Plan.

The policy comes into force immediately and is mandatory for all bodies in the public administration, with oversight and evaluation being the responsibility of the MIMP, the ministry leading it. There will be 6-monthly and annual assessments that will contain the information provided by all the ministries responsible for providing the services stipulated in the policy and by the National Statistics & IT Institute (INEI). The Executive is expected to approve the Multisectoral Strategic Gender Equality Plan within ninety days following publication of the policy, which will provide substantial input for policy implementation.

Structural discrimination

The policy defines structural discrimination as the “set of practices reproduced by sociocultural patterns inbuilt in people, institutions and society in general. This discrimination is expressed through exclusive practices and narratives that are given credence by the established social order, where men and women inter-relate at social, political, economic and ethical levels. Thus it is also evident in the opportunities for development and for achieving life plans that differ due to the biological reality of being men or women.”

The policy’s strategic goals

The policy has the following strategic goals in order to eliminate structural discrimination:

• Reduce violence against women
• Guarantee the exercise of women’s sexual and reproductive health rights
• Guarantee the access of and participation by women in decision-making
• Guarantee the exercise of women’s economic and social rights
• Reduce the institutional barriers that stand in the way of equality in the public and private spheres between women and men
• Reduce the prevalence of discriminatory sociocultural patterns in the population

Note that each goal develops its specific indicators and guidelines for state intervention, determining in each case those responsible.

Policy Indicators

Lastly, the policy establishes the future scenario it hopes to reach, consisting of reduced structural discrimination affecting women, setting the following targets:

• The reduction to 36.8% of tolerance in society of violence against women;
• The incorporation of the gender approach in the institutional management of 100% of ministries
• The reduction to 2.4% of the proportion of women who have been victims of physical and/sexual violence from their partner, in the previous 12 months;
• A 40% increase of women in Congress, and a 20% increase in female mayors; and,
• The increase of the rate of income equality between women and men to 86.8%.