BACKGROUND The Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean is a permanent subsidiary organ of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);. The Conference is convened at regular intervals of no more than three years in fulfilment of the mandates contained in the Regional Plan of Action for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean as adopted at the sixth session of the Regional Conference, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in September 1994. At their thirtieth meeting, which took place in Lima in February 2000, the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean agreed that one of their two annual meetings would be open to all member countries of the Conference and that it would be held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile. At their thirty-second meeting, held in San José, Costa Rica, in April 2001, the Presiding Officers decided to open their thirty-third meeting to all member countries and to hold it at the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.