Among the many events during the Rio +20, the commitments to improve social conditions for men stand out. "Men and women," as female presidents and prime ministers have been careful to emphasize during the Women Leaders' Summit on the Future Women Want, this Thursday, June 21.

The meeting marked the end of the Women Leaders’ Forum on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women for Sustainable Development, a series of discussions that started June 19 at Riocentro, organized by the former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, who now holds the position of executive-director of UN Women.

The event reinforced the need to face the challenge of ending discrimination and violence against women and to achieve equal rights, opportunities and participation.

Besides President Roussef, the event was attended by Presidents Laura Chinchilla Miranda, of Costa Rica, and Dalia Grybauskaitè, of Lithuania, and the Prime Ministers Portia Simpson Millier, of Jamaica, Julia Gillard, of Australia, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, of Denmark.

In her speech, President Rousseff said that the conference presents the opportunity and the challenge of incorporating women's rights as a crucial and structuring dimension in the sustainable development process. "To achieve full citizenship of women we still have to face old battles, essentially, equal access to employment opportunities, remuneration and social protection, and often the battle against physical violence."

The result of the series of meetings was the drafting of an official document called "The Future Women Want", including the views of representatives of various countries.

President Roussef made a point to congratulate Michelle Bachelet for having managed to negotiate a document among all the countries represented at the forum.

During the event, President Roussef also made a "call to action" with other world leaders to highlight the contribution of women in achieving sustainable development objectives.

Check out the document “The Future Women Want”

Listen to the audio of the speeches

Check out high-resolution images in the album