#WebPolicyLearning | An Online Monsoon School Program on Feminist Foreign Policy: Praxis for a Peaceful and Gender Just World Order
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) India Office, and IMPRI Gender Impact Studies Center (GISC), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi are organising
An Online Monsoon School Program on
Feminist Foreign Policy:
Praxis for a Peaceful and Gender Just World Order
Details of the #WebPolicyLearning:
Dates: September 9, 16, 23 and 30, 2022 (Four consecutive Fridays)
Time: 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. IST
Platform: Zoom, Facebook Live and YouTube
Program Themes:
- Gender, Peace, and Security
- Gendered Dimensions of the UN Security Council
- Gender and Sustainable Development Discourses
- Gender, International Relations and Diplomacy
Background:
The Gender Impact Studies Center (GISC) at IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute undertakes rigorous analyses of the nuances of challenges towards gender equality locally, nationally, regionally and globally and advocates that voices against gender biases must be made more vocal, which would aid in the steady elimination of exclusive masculine agencies over a period of time. Hence, to advance this goal, IMPRI GISC is collaborating with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) for a weekly Webinar Series, to be held on four consecutive Fridays in the month of September 2022.
Feminist Foreign Policy, relegated to the margins for decades, is slowly gaining much-deserved recognition as a result of the efforts of peacemaking, peacebuilding and peacekeeping by transnational feminist solidarity. A feminist foreign policy provides a powerful lens through which we can counter the violent global systems of power, i.e., patriarchy, racism, cultural nationalism, imperialism, and militarism that leave the majority of the population in perpetual states of vulnerability and despair. It puts the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights at the center of a nation’s diplomatic agenda. According to the International Center for Research on Women, feminist foreign policy is the policy of a state that defines its interactions with other states and movements in a manner that prioritises gender equality and enshrines the human rights of women and other historically marginalised groups, allocates significant resources to achieve that vision and seeks through its implementation to disrupt patriarchal and male-dominated power structures across all of its levers of influence (aid, trade, defence and diplomacy), informed by the voices of feminist activists, groups and movements.
Taking a cue from the official European Union Foreign Policy, a progressive feminist foreign policy consists of three ‘R’s:
- Rights, meaning the promotion of women’s issues, including by countering gender-based violence and discrimination;
- Representation, including support for women’s participation at all levels of decision-making, from parliament to private sector boards to the legal system; and
- Resources, to ensure equitable allocation among people of all genders, whether in government budgets or development projects.
According to the International Peace Institute, when women participate in peace processes, agreements are more likely to last—and to be forged in the first place. The time is ripe for instituting a feminist foreign policy by India and all other nations. Distancing itself from simple rhetoric, such a foreign policy would be strategic and would be critical to a nation’s broader foreign-policy objectives, including economic development, prosperity, peace and security.
It must not be forgotten that Hansa Mehta, India’s representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, strongly opposed the phrase “all men are born free and equal” and fiercely advocated for what led to the adoption of Article 1 of the UN Declaration Human Rights that “all human beings are born free and equal“.
September 30: Gender, International Relations and Diplomacy
Prof Meenal Shrivastava
Professor and Coordinator of Political Economy and Global Studies, Athabasca University, Canada
Special Remarks:
Ambassador Anil Trigunayat
Former Indian Ambassador to Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Libya and Malta
Prof Nilima Srivastava
Professor, School of Gender and Development Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi
Live Video YouTube: https://youtu.be/NMQCCse_VaU
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/impriindia/videos/400425905615697
YouTube HQ Video: https://youtu.be/cOahluUcUek
Anchor FM | Spotify | Google Podcasts
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6QRrTjPyaDm0niA12iPWJC?si=ande0paISRepGFKbY3D1aA
Event Page: https://www.impriindia.com/event/feminist-foreign-policy/
