NDTV: Sweden released a handbook of its “feminist foreign policy” Thursday for rights groups and foreign governments, showcasing lessons from the Scandinavian nation’s flagship approach to promoting women’s rights globally.
The manual, published on the government’s website in English weeks before a September 9 general election, is derived from four years of work to place gender equality at the heart of the country’s international agenda. Sweden began its feminist foreign policy “in response to the discrimination and systematic subordination that still mark the daily lives of countless women and girls around the world”, the handbook said. It added that while gender equality was “an object in itself”, it was “essential” in achieving more general government objectives, like peace, security and sustainable development.
Led since its inception in 2014 by Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, its goals include the promotion of economic emancipation, fighting sexual violence and improving women’s political participation.
“We were met with mixed reactions including a bunch of giggling in the first days and outspoken resistance,” Wallstrom told a news conference in Stockholm.
“We’ve constantly heard ‘these are just pretty words’, so this is why (the handbook) is important,” the Social Democrat minister added.
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