According to Freedom House, 2021 marked the 16th consecutive year of decline in global democratic freedom. For years, the international community has witnessed wider trends of growing authoritarianism, increased militarisation, political polarisation, shrinking space for civil society, the persecution of minorities, and rising inequality. Regressing commitments to international human rights frameworks and push backs against resolutions for gender equality have created further divisions between states at the international level. Insufficient action to reduce our impact on the environment is hindering our fight against the climate crisis and climate injustice.

What has become clear in light of such trends is that the major challenges of our time cannot be addressed by "business as usual" foreign policy - or by frameworks that continue to prioritise power, domination, and the procurement of weapons over the well-being of people and our environment. Only new approaches, perspectives, and rebalanced power dynamics can achieve justice, equality, and sustainable peace.

For this reason, on the 13th of April 2022, in partnership with the governments of Canada, Sweden, and Mexico, over 15 leading civil society organisations, and the Open Society Foundations, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy hosted the first ever Feminist Foreign Policy Summit. The Summit constituted an opportunity to:

Bring together the leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of Feminist Foreign Policy to support the exchange of best practices, knowledge, and expertise;
Support advocacy efforts for the uptake of Feminist Foreign Policy among new actors; and
Take a stand against global inequality and exclusion.

Our various panels covered topics such as climate justice, demilitarisation and disarmament, understanding and countering transnational anti-gender campaigns, decolonising foreign policy, and much much more.

However, we didn’t just start in April. Our Summit Season began in November 2021, with the first of fourteen “countdown” satellite events. Over the course of the season, we held discussions on everything from feminist migration policy, to women human rights defenders, to feminist digital policy, to vaccine inequity. This was our most ambitious event series yet. And we’re not stopping anytime soon.

View the Official Programme Here