Gender-equal action – a platform for building more sustainable, peaceful, and democratic societies
Women’s participation in conflict resolution is still not a given, even though evidence shows it ought to be. At the same time, we are seeing some progress. The OSCE was led by two women this year for the first time. My colleague Helga Maria Schmid is Secretary General and I am the Chairperson-in-Office. Moreover, Swedish Member of the Riksdag Margareta Cederfelt is President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and the Permanent Council is chaired by Ambassador Ulrika Funered. Having women in these leadership roles in the OSCE is significant and sends an important signal.
After almost a year as the Chairperson-in-Office, I am even more convinced that the OSCE is central to security in our region. I base this not least on my visits to some 20 countries in the OSCE region this year, including all participating States with ongoing conflicts, where I have seen the important work that the organisation does on the ground.
As Chair, it is possible, through strategic and systematic work, to set the tone for all OSCE activities. I believe that Sweden has succeeded in doing so in a number of areas, but first and foremost with regard to gender equality issues and the women, peace and security agenda.
But what has this meant in practice and how will it affect the half a billion women who live in the OSCE region? I want to highlight three areas where our work, which started long before the Chairpersonship, has begun to yield results:
1) Women’s representation in decision-making processes
Women’s and girls’ perspectives are needed in order to achieve sustainable peace. Women need to be sitting at the negotiating table. During my term as OSCE Chairperson, Sweden has taken the initiative for women’s and civil society’s meaningful participation in all phases of a conflict, from initial early warning signs to long-term peacebuilding efforts. An example of this is the work being carried out by my Special Representative for South Caucasus, Ambassador Annika Söder. Through these efforts, the negotiation format for the protracted conflicts in Georgia has now, for the first time, begun to include discussions on how the conflict affects women, men, girls and boys differently. This should be a natural component of all peace negotiations.
2) Gender equality has permeated all our activities
During my visits as Chairperson-in-Office, I have always meet with civil society representatives to hear their views on gender equality in their countries, and I have raised gender equality and women, peace and security in my official meetings. The importance of discussing gender equality as a self-evident security issue with government representatives should not be underestimated. When we show how these issues affect people’s everyday lives, it becomes difficult to ignore the importance of working for gender equality and conducting gender analyses. A relevant example I have highlighted during my year as Chairperson-in-Office is the consequences of the drastic restrictions to civilian freedom of movement at crossing points along the contact line in eastern Ukraine. A group that has especially suffered from this is pensioners, many of whom are women, who need to cross the contact line to collect their pensions.
3) Rights and resources – a prerequisite for sustainable development
The pandemic continues to hit countries in the OSCE region hard. Women and girls are in particularly vulnerable situations. And it is not just a matter of a ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence. Since women are more likely to have insecure jobs, work in informal sectors or be responsible for caring for family members, many have been forced to exit the labour market during the pandemic. Women’s economic empowerment is an important security issue. Economic security can make it easier to leave a violent relationship, and it also facilitates women’s participation in society, such as in conflict resolution. In the post-pandemic recovery, we must therefore involve women and girls to a greater extent and lay the foundations for more gender-equal societies. Against this background, Sweden has pushed for women’s economic empowerment during its year as Chair through a whole host of initiatives, meetings and conferences, which means that the issue is now clearly and firmly anchored in the OSCE agenda.
I feel confident that Sweden’s focus on women, peace and security has contributed to creating a solid platform for future Chairs to continue to ensure that the OSCE remains a relevant player for our security. We now trust our successors and the Secretariat to take our work forward, and we will be there in the Troika to support them in any way we can.
By working together for a more inclusive and gender-equal development, we have a chance to build more sustainable, peaceful and democratic societies in the OSCE.