The United Nations General Assembly, held from September 13 to 27, 2022, was an opportunity to promote the concept of feminist foreign policy. Although the subject was highlighted in parallel events, it was barely mentioned in the plenary speeches. The aim will be to keep the debates and discussions held this year alive so that the momentum spreads within the UN and its member states.
For several months now, the concept of feminist foreign policy has been promoted and refined in many forums. On September 12, Germany hosted the conference "Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy" with the aim of developing the content of its feminist foreign policy. The Netherlands, Rwanda, and Albania, for example, participated in the conference. Two weeks later, the 77th session of the UN General Assembly provided another opportunity to reaffirm this approach. Formal and informal discussions took place, and after Liberian President George Weah proclaimed himself "chief feminist," Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare Williametta Saydee-Tarr announced that the country wished to adopt a feminist foreign policy. Gradually, we may be witnessing the formation of an increasingly solid group of leading states.
The concept of feminist foreign policy reaffirmed
More broadly, several speakers at the plenary session addressed issues of gender equality. Bolivian President Luis Arce hailed 2022 as the year of "depatriarchalization" in Bolivia and encouraged the United Nations to do the same. Mohamed Bazoum, President of Niger, mentioned "gender equity" as a priority in education. At theGeneration Equality Momentevent, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna stated that the right to abortion was one of the keys to achieving gender equality. Secretary of State Chrysoula Zacharopoulou announced that France would renew the Support Fund for Feminist Organizations launched in 2019 (without specifying the amount or duration at this stage), but also that France was joining the Alliance for Feminist Movements, a framework for consultation between feminist political actors and civil society. Joining this movement means that France accepts its responsibilities in terms of feminist foreign policy and must therefore respect them.
Commitments made during side events
During parallel events, gender equality was very often linked to specific themes. At the Global Fund replenishment conference, French President Emmanuel Macron briefly mentioned the fight against gender inequality in access to healthcare as one of France's priorities. The link between education and gender equality was made more substantially at the Transforming Education Summit (TES) convened by Antonio Guterres. During a session of the summit dedicated to the theme of 'Advancing gender equality and girls' and women's empowerment in and through education', French Minister of Education and Youth Pap Ndiaye clearly stated: "An education policy must be feminist; it is not an option, it is an obligation." He specified that France attaches great importance to gender equality in the educational projects it supports around the world. The link between education and SRHR was also made several times. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima reiterated that education is the most effective response to the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa: if a girl attends school, her risk of contracting HIV is reduced by 50%. Despite these encouraging statements, Antonio Guterres' final declaration was disappointing on the issue of comprehensive sexuality education.
At the highest level, the feminist lens is all too rarely applied to foreign policy.
Russia's war against Ukraine was, of course, at the heart of many speeches during the UNGA plenary session. For Emmanuel Macron, several camps are emerging, and "those who remain silent today are unwittingly or secretly serving the cause of a new imperialism with a certain complicity." The same type of reasoning could apply to gender equality as a geopolitical issue: not speaking out on the subject, not defending women's rights in the face of threats, amounts to allowing them to be rolled back. Yet France did not raise the issue in the plenary session. There was also a general silence on the oppression of women in Iran, with the exception of a few states, including the United States, which made brief mention of it. At the September 22 Security Council meeting on the issue of crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres listed rape and sexual violence as war crimes of which Russia is accused. Adopting truly feminist foreign policies would make it possible to include gender issues in the analysis and resolution of conflicts. The plenary speeches on the war in Ukraine, while perfectly legitimate, ignored the link between sexual violence and the care of refugees and war victims, which was highlighted, for example, by Iryna Dovgan at the event organized by the Denis Mukwege Nobel Peace Prize Foundation.
Intensify momentum ahead of the 2023 UNGA
Finally, one year after the Generation Equality Forum, UN Women launched a Platform for Accountability of the commitments made in June 2021. For now, according to the report "Generation Equality Accountability," state participation in this initiative appears to be fairly low. It needs to be stepped up so that the platform can serve as a basis not only for measuring progress, but also for helping to steer states toward feminist foreign policies. France, co-organizer of the FGE, has a key role to play in this initiative. In the coming months, Equipop will contribute to various spaces designed to enrich and strengthen feminist foreign policies. We can hope that these joint efforts will bear fruit in the medium term and that the 2023 UNGA, among others, will address these issues in a more central way.
