Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women

In 2015 Sweden announced to adopt a feminist foreign policy, making it the first country in the world to implement this aspect in the work of Swedish foreign affairs. What happened since then?

Afghan Women have had a long journey in terms of their rights and socio-political participation since the Taliban downfall in 2001. As Afghanistan has just entered into a new decade of transformation, the main questions related to women, peace and security remain: What has been built to ensure women’s protection and participation over the last decade? And what strategic approach could consolidate gender equality in the decade to come?

Last December, the Israeli Government decided to establish a governmental committee to create a National Action Plan in the spirit  of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The resolution calls on UN member states to protect women from violence, increase the participation of diverse women in decision-making bodies, and for the prevention of armed conflict. This video and the text that follows tells the story of the journey of civil society NGOs to create an Action Plan for Israel.  

While legislative and institutional progresses have been made in Morroco, the implementations of Beijing +20 often remain inadequate and below the citizens’ expectations due to a lack of budgetary resources or political willingness.

The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Southern Africa office spoke to five leading women’s rights activists on their perceptions of the challenges that women in South Africa face today and whether the Beijing Declaration, and South Africa’s commitment to it, remains relevant to addressing those challenges.

The rejection of the gender equality strategy is an emblematic representation of tension in EU economic and social policies, which has concerned women’s advocates since the beginnings of the financial crisis.

Over the last decades, norms, rules and processes of regulation have appeared with the goal of fostering gender equality. They take many forms, of which gender quotas are a very widespread and frequently used version.