The Wife of the President, Elizabeta Gjorgievska, is patron of the two-day International Conference “Women in Foreign Policy”, which is being held today and tomorrow in Skopje, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Addressing the first panel discussion titled: “Can Women in Foreign Policy Change the World”, Gjorgievska stressed that diplomacy is one of the areas in which women have traditionally not been the majority in senior management positions and that this is not the case only in our country.
If you look at the experience in recent political history, even the most developed democracies of ours have a short tradition of women ambassadors and women in senior management positions, mediators in conflict management, negotiators of international disputes and signatories to international agreements,” Gjorgievska said. and added that we need to end and transform the history of gender oppression and violence that is not just physical but passive, systematically ignoring and marginalizing the social position of women. “If we do not include women in the key processes of running a society, we exclude one half of our population, and thus we have untapped potential,” said the president’s wife, according to whom that involvement should not remain just to meet the legal framework. and fulfillment of the articles of a declaration. She stressed that we must engage in the essential sensitization in all spheres, from intimate to professional, about the importance of gender equality.
“If we look at the experience in the recent political history, even more developed democracies than us have a short tradition of women ambassadors and women in senior management positions, women mediators in conflict management, women negotiators of international disputes and women signatories of international agreements”, Gjorgievska said and added that we need to end and transform the history of gender suppression and violence that is not just physical but passive, systematically ignoring and marginalizing the social position of women.
“If we do not include women in the key processes of running a society, we exclude one half of our population, and thus we have untapped potential”, the President’s Wife said who added that this inclusion should not remain only for the purpose of satisfying the legal framework and meeting the provisions of a declaration. We must engage with the essential sensitization in all spheres, from the intimate to the professional, about the importance of gender equality.
Gjorgievska stressed that gender equality is an obligation of every one of us, every day. It is an obligation to create a society in which every girl can feel that in the future she will have the same opportunities for education, employment and quality of life as every boy.
“The more we invest in gender equality, the more we will enable future generations to inherit a society in which stereotypes and systemic barriers are reduced and opportunities for everyone to enjoy equal rights in every sphere of life increase”, the Wife of the President said.
The Conference was opened by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bujar Osmani, and numerous domestic and foreign ministers, representatives of international organizations, diplomats, businessmen, during the two-day conference will discuss several topics including: engaging men in gender equality; the power of women peacemakers; Covid-19 and its economic impact on women; the role of parliaments in promoting gender equality.
The Conference adopted a joint declaration establishing a network of women diplomats from the Western Balkans, which opens up the possibility for increased communication and exchange of experiences between women diplomats in order to increase the role they have and should develop in the foreign policy of the region.
