EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini holds a joint news conference with Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallstrom at the government headquarters Rosenbad in Stockholm, Sweden. Credit: TT News Agency/Janerik Henriksson/ Reuters/Files
United Nations: Sweden’s top diplomat has a question: “Where are the women?”
Taking a seat on the UNs’ influential Security Council, Sweden will use its clout to press its feminist foreign policy, foreign minister Margot Wallstrom said on Monday.
That policy, coined when Wallstrom took office two years ago, seeks equal rights, decision-making roles and fair allocation of resources for women.
It is of major significance in peace negotiations, Wallstrom told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sweden took its seat this month on the Security Council, which has 10 members elected to two-year terms along with five permanent members – the US, Britain, France, China and Russia. Its key responsibility is maintaining international peace and security.
“Our instinct is to ask, ‘Where are the women? Are they represented? Are they around the table?'” Wallstrom said during a visit to the UN. “This will be consistently something that we will bring up.”
She cited a lack of women’s involvement in efforts to find a peaceful transfer of power in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Colombia, meanwhile, found a way to end its 52 year civil war by making a concerted effort to include women, she said.
Women were seated on both sides of the negotiating table, and gender issues were addressed in Colombia’s peace agreement – an initiative UN Women described as the first of its kind.
Having women at the negotiating table increases the chance of a peace agreement lasting 15 years by 35%, according to UN Women.
“You cannot have sustainable peace if you exclude half of the population” Wallstrom said.
“It’s still the unfinished business of our time to make sure women have their rights and their representation and their resources looked after.”
She pointed to the work of the Nordic Women Mediation Network, a year old effort that links women from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and trains them to participate in peace processes.
“We want to expand that to other parts of the world,” Wallstrom said. “We don’t want to hear the argument again that there are no women mediators or negotiators.”
(Reuters)