London – The Women Foreign Ministers’ meeting that concluded in Toronto on Friday has called to empower the next generation of women leaders.

A statement issued by co-chairs of the meeting,  Mélanie Joly P.C.,  Foreign Minister of Canada and Kamina Johnson Smith, JP, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica,  in Toronto, has pledged to advance women’s participation in leadership and decision-making and support safe and inclusive spaces for women in politics and public life.

The meeting also pledged to intentionally encourage young women across the world to enter politics and public life. The statement has expressed concerned with the growing hate and misogynistic discourse found online targeting women, particularly in civic spaces and agreed to address online gender-based violence and prevent gendered disinformation and call on online platforms to take action and increase their accountability.

Time for a Woman Secretary-General

The Co-chairs said that the meeting also discussed the question of gender imbalance within the UN system.

“It is time for a woman Secretary-General. We strongly encourage member states considering the nomination of a candidate for the position of the United Nations Secretary-General, to nominate women,” the statement said, adding, “In noting that there have been only four women presidents of the UN General Assembly in the last 79 years, we believe that it is also time to pursue gender parity for this position. It is within our reach to make these meaningful changes.”

“We engaged with diverse civil society representatives. They highlighted the importance of supporting women’s grassroots organizations and human rights defenders in shaping policies. We agreed to foster supportive environments for gender equality and recognized independent members of civil society as key drivers for the success and resilience of democracies.

We are encouraged that women’s political representation globally has doubled in the last 25 years. However, this still only amounts to around 1 in 4 parliamentary seats held by women today. We pledged to advance women’s participation in leadership and decision making and support safe and inclusive spaces for women in politics and public life. We also pledged to intentionally encourage young women across the world to enter politics and public life, the statement said.

Minister Deuba stresses on ‘whole of’ approach

Addressing the Women Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nepal,  Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba, stressed on the need of the ‘whole of’ approach to attain gender equality, to protect and uphold a girl from her womb to her tomb with the support of untiring leadership and fearless efforts.

She emphasized on the importance of digital technology and tools for women leaders to directly reach out to their constituencies, to raise awareness and spread positive message towards women leadership. She also highlighted the flip side of the digital technology widely used to spread hate, targeted harassment, and disinformation to discourage women from rising in public offices and business. She said that the leadership in developed countries could play an important role to secure technological and financial support to developing countries to bridge the divide, as well as to rein-in the negative by-products of digital technologies for the betterment of society.

The Women Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was organised to discuss women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in governance and public life, the organisers said.