Eduardo González
The Casa de América headquarters in Madrid will host the GWL Voices Dialogue on January 22 and 23, an event in which concrete responses to global challenges will be addressed from the perspective of women’s rights.
The event will be organized jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by Global Women Leaders (GWL), an organization of women leaders from all regions and backgrounds “committed to building a gender-equal international system that effectively responds to today’s challenges of sustainable development, peace, security, and human rights,” as reported by GWL itself on its website.
The organization was founded by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, former UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and former Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra. Its executive director is the former Ecuadorian foreign minister María Fernanda Espinosa.
It currently has 70 members (including former Spanish Foreign Ministers Ana Palacio and Arancha González Laya, former Secretary of State Cristina Gallach, former EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, former Ibero-American Secretary General Rebeca Grynspan, and three former UN high commissioners for human rights, Mary Robinson, Michelle Bachelet and Navi Pillay, among many others) from more than forty countries.
The founders and members of GWL will meet in Madrid on January 22 and 23 to celebrate Women’s Turn to Reshape the Future: GWL Voices Dialogue, an event that “will pave the way for women to amplify their influence, contribute meaningfully to global challenges, and redefine narratives that guide our shared future,” indicates the organization.
“In an era marked by unprecedented and interconnected crises, the vital role of women in shaping global geopolitics has gained prominence,” it continues. In this context, the organizers indicate, “the GWL Voices Dialogue will discuss women’s participation in politics and all aspects of public life not merely as an issue of equality but as a strategic imperative to enhance institutions and democracies”. “Women must be equal partners in shaping the international order to ensure its legitimacy and effectiveness.,” warns GWL.
Last Tuesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met with two senior representatives of Global Women Leaders, María Fernanda Espinosa and Susana Malcorra, to prepare the celebration of the first GWL Voices Dialogue, an event that, according to the Ministry, “it will allow us to project the image of a Spain that has consolidated itself in recent years as a reference country in Feminist Foreign Policy.” The minister took advantage of the meeting to mention the progress made by Spain in 2023 in this matter, including the presentation, last October, of the Feminist Foreign Policy Action Plan 2023-2024.
