Pedro Sánchez: "We will not rest until all women and girls fully enjoy their human rights"

Madrid

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa

The event was attended by H.M. Queen Letizia and brought together nearly 70 African political leaders, as well as an impressive number of Ibero American politicians and activists and numerous heads of international organisations, including the former president of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (virtually); Michelle Bachelet (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights); the secretary general of UNCTAD, Rebeca Grynspan; the vice-president of ECOWAS, Finda Koroma; and the president of the Foundation, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega.

Women for Africa is committed to democracy, governance, peace, human rights and sustainable social economic development, promoting gender equality as the most powerful factor of social transformation on the African continent through the support and accompaniment of its women.

For President Pedro Sánchez, "the visibility of women is the first tool for this change" and gender equality "the necessary and unquestionable condition for the development of any society". There is still "a long way" to go to achieve equality, but the Government of Spain is strongly committed to achieving it.

"We will not rest until all women and girls can fully enjoy of their human rights," the president said. "We will not stop until we eliminate all violence against women and girls. We will not stop until women are involved in all decision-making processes.

In the current geopolitical context, with a war in the heart of Europe, "we need more than ever" to pay attention to the role of women. Although women and girls are particularly vulnerable to the impact of war (as we are seeing with the millions of displaced persons from Ukraine and the terrible circumstances they suffering under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan), they are also agents of peace, "and we must rely on them to get us out of times of conflict" such as the present one.

Gender equality is a global challenge. Hence the relevance of the objective set out during the conference: to build bridges that unite women from Africa, Ibero America and Europe. These are advances in which the Government of Spain is showing its commitment "with deeds, not just words".

A little over a year ago, the government approved a strategy for feminist diplomacy, thereby defending gender equality as a distinctive element of Spanish foreign policy.

Our development cooperation is based on a new paradigm that promotes effective equality between men and women through empowerment and the construction of real autonomy for women. In 2020, Spanish Development Cooperation allocated just over €156 million to gender equality and the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. The ELLAS+ Fund was also launched to promote women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership in political life.

This commitment has been made by the Government of Spain in its relations with Africa. The implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda is one of Spain's priorities on the continent, together with the prevention of trafficking and the fight against criminal networks that traffic in human beings, especially women and girls.

Also in Ibero America - a region that includes 14 of the 25 countries with the highest rates of feminicide in the world - the Spanish Development Cooperation is contributing to the development and implementation of public policies on gender equality, the fight against gender-based violence, women's economic empowerment and their access to historically male-dominated jobs, as well as the promotion of women's associations and their political leadership.

Pedro Sánchez has called for the protection of the achievements made in terms of gender equality throughout history thanks to the efforts of many people, especially women. The president has lamented that these gains, such as women's right to decide over their own bodies in the United States, continue to be destroyed. But he also underlined his optimism about the progress being made in other countries around the world, such as Argentina, Mexico and Colombia.

For the president, "we must remember all the women who have fought and are still fighting to defend things that in 2022 should be guaranteed without any kind of struggle", while expressing his conviction that "we are closer to achieving equality, an essential condition for achieving a more sustainable, equitable and just world. A better world.

Non official translation