The United Nations Association – UK has released a new magazine issue, looking at the idea of feminist foreign policy, and what that should mean for the UN and the UK in particular.
The magazine is launched with a hard hitting editorial from UNA-UK Executive Director Natalie Samarasinghe, who demonstrates that women are still battling for their basic rights and safety; suffering economic, political and social discrimination in the UK, at the UN and around the world.
Whenever women face discrimination, there are men – and women – who bear individual and collective responsibility. If you aren’t challenging the status quo, that includes you
The magazine, entitled ‘The 'F' word’, features four op-eds then give four different perspectives on what a feminist foreign policy looks like or could look like. Margot Wallström, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden gives the Swedish perspective; Janice Charette, High Commissioner of Canada to the United Kingdom, the Canadian; and Joanna Roper, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Special Envoy for Gender Equality, the British. Zarina Khan, Director, Gender Action for Peace and Security (a civil society network of which UNA-UK is a proud member) then outlines how feminist notions of meaningful equality could have a transformative effect on global relations.
We then look in depth at the United Nations, with essays from Spogmay Ahmed of the International Center for Research on Women (who came up with the 100 day plan and scorecard for a feminist UN), and Anne Marie Goetz former Senior Advisor to UN Women; and a detailed interview with Diane Corner, a former British diplomat who served as Deputy Special Representative and Deputy Head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) from July 2014 to June 2017.
UNA-UK's campaigns are introduced with a piece from our chair Lord Wood on how to "Keep Britian Global" and a discussion piece about zero tolerance, which introduces our 'Mission Justice' campaign on sexual violence by UN peacekeepers.
Justine Masika Bihamba, Founder of Synergie des Femmes, a women’s organisation based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, ends the magazine with a Last Word which is both personal and political.
And online we have exclusives from senior officials at UN Women, UNFPA, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy and several other unique and insightful articles.
