The President of Chile has said she will soon send a bill to the country’s Congress to legalise same-sex marriage.

President Michelle Bachelet made an address to the Unite Nations General Assembly panel on Wednesday.

During the speech, she said the bill would go to Congress in the first half of next year, 2017.

“My government has committed to submit to Congress a bill on marriage equality during the first half of 2017,” Bachelet said, reads a transcript.

“Furthermore, it will also consider governmental support for several measures destined to strengthen the rights of the LGBT community, including reforms to anti-discrimination laws.”

Back in 2015, Chile legalised same-sex civil unions, and the first couples registered their unions in July of that year.

Speaking at the bill’s signing ceremony in April 2015, President Bachelet said: “The civil union law is a vindication in the struggle for sexual diversity rights.”

The new bill allows couples, among other things, to inherit each other’s property, join their partner’s health plan and receive pension benefits.

Only a small group of Latin American nations – including Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay – currently allow same-sex marriage.