The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Alberto Van Klaveren, presented this Monday (12) the country’s new Feminist Foreign Policy (PEF) — the first in South America to implement this strategy.
“Although the concept can raise doubts and even suspicions, the truth is that the basis of a feminist foreign policy is nothing strange. It is the conviction of achieving a more egalitarian world, which recognizes and promotes the rights of women and girls, and that duly represents today’s societies”, said the minister.
“The PEF focuses on gender equality as a democratic value and a principle that reinforces the country’s image, status and recognition”, according to the ministry. Van Klaveren highlighted that the text will be “a living document”, because feminist foreign policy is “a paradigm under construction that advances with society and the challenges of the future”.
This initiative positions equality between men and women as a transformative element, both on Chile’s borders and in its international relations towards feminist cooperation, ensuring that this declaration is a “fundamental condition” for the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals, established by the UN.
“This policy is participatory, inclusive, transversal and intersectional, as it recognizes that inequality is not only structural, but is also shaped by the overlapping of several factors”, he added.
The new policy seeks to advance in an internal sense, in which the importance of women’s participation in decision-making was highlighted, and also in an external perspective, in which coordinated action is promoted with “defined objectives and measurable results”.
“We are facing a task that requires all of us, as we know that gender inequality severely limits societies’ potential for growth and development,” said Van Klaveren.
In March 2022, Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced the development of this policy to establish the principle of equality and non-discrimination as the axis of the country’s political work. According to the ministry, the president paid “special” attention to the process of appointing ambassadors in the country, allowing the number of women who carry out this work to grow from 14 in 2021 to 27 in February 2023.
“Our country has been a pioneer in providing an inclusive approach to international trade policy. We were the first country in the world to incorporate chapters on gender and trade in several of our treaties, seeking to open up opportunities to expand women’s participation in international trade ” said Van Klaveren.
In 2014, Sweden was the first country to introduce such a feminist foreign policy, followed three years later by Canada, in 2019 by France and Luxembourg, and in 2021 by Mexico and Spain. Now, after Chile entered the list, Colombia and Argentina also expressed interest in adopting it.
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