The Global Leaders Series on Women and International Peace: A discussion on Rights, Representation, Resources and the Way forward, was organised by the International Peace Institute on 27 September 2018 during the UN General Assembly week. The guest speaker was Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Margot Wallström. She is a leading advocate for women’s rights and used the platform to share her insights on how the international community can better live up to its obligations to women and girls across the world.
Women, Peace and Security has been at the forefront during Sweden’s Security Council tenure. Ms Wallström highlighted that Sweden is the first country in the world to have launched a Feminist Foreign Policy making equality between men and women a fundamental aim of Sweden’s foreign policy agenda. As the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict from 2010 to 2012, Ms Wallström stressed that “women, peace, and security is an issue, not just a women’s issue, a peace and security issue, and an issue that holds the keys to sustainable peace.”
The discussions were important to ACCORD’s Women, Peace and Security initiatives from a policy perspective noting the Minister’s reflections on how the feminist foreign policy worked and the discussion around women having special perspectives on programmes like Children in Armed Conflict and conflict prevention.
