Wrap up conferentie Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy

It is my pleasure to wish you a very warm welcome to the second...

Shaping Feminist Foreign Policy conference 2023.

I think it's really important to come together all across civil society and governments, really to discuss these issues all together.

I have conversations sometimes with funders who are like: Oh but there's no groups out there that can receive our funding. I'm like: that's a lot of bullshit. We really need to have that discussion with people from all over the world, but also from different gender identity, sexual orientations, because that will truly make our policies feminist.

Ceasefire now!

Ceasefire now!

Heavy militarized, masculine solutions to conflict and violence have led us to nowhere. They have benefit no one except arms trade and arms industry. And it is time to really think through feminist lenses.

To be honest, real power is never freely given. It needs to be taken.

So we need to support women and girls to take up that power. Feminist foreign policy is not about women only. We need all genders. So I'm very happy to see so many active men taking their responsibility.

I think the most important message that I heard here, is that you need to deserve the feminist label.

You are not just a feminist because you say so, but you are a feminist because you do feminist things.

So really being part of these conversations is important, because then we're able to set for the future.

We need every feminist, regardless of their gender. Your insights are crucial. What's going on? Because things have to change. Now we are patriarchal institutions.

I truly believe that we have to go into those institutions with the clear conviction that we are there to change the way those institutions work.