Vilnius, Lithuania – The Women’s Democracy Network (WDN), in partnership with the Lithuania Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, hosted a forum in Lithuania entitled Making Women’s Voices Heard. The forum, held December 5-6 in conjunction with the annual Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting of foreign ministers, brought together women activists and elected officials from former Soviet republics that transitioned into democratic countries and women from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to discuss successful methods for increasing women’s involvement in the democratic decision-making processes during critical transition periods within their countries.

The event was co-chaired by Evaldas Ignatavičius, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, and Anita Botti, Deputy Director of the Office of Global Women’s Issues at the United States Department of State. Ignatavičius stated that the forum was held to address women’s rights and gender equality issues which are areas of particular concern for the OSCE participating states. In her remarks, Botti shared the U.S. government’s priority to support global women’s empowerment initiatives, quoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s concern that, “Women everywhere have the talent, but not the opportunities.” 

WDN Director Michelle Bekkering moderated the opening session of the event which focused on substantive political women’s representation and its impact on the visibility of women’s achievements.

Kristin Van der Leest, Adviser on Gender Issues at the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), presented ODIHR’S Six-Step Action Plan on Gender Equality in Elected Office and the launch of ODIHR’s new women’s political participation project. WDN is a partner with ODIHR on the project which identifies entry points for women into the political sphere and documents the correlation between women’s political participation and democratic change.

Wendy Patten, the OSCE Chairmanship’s personal representative on gender issues, presented the OSCE’s gender initiatives and led a discussion on the relationship between socio-economic issues and gender parity.

The forum offered a platform for the participants from Eurasia to present country-specific initiatives which were successful in raising women’s participation in public life with their peers from the Arab Spring states. WDN member Zouhour Krarsi from Tunisia shared her experiences addressing legal and justice issues during Tunisia’s transition through the civil society organizations she founded, Tunis Center for Transitional Justice. Lamia Abusedra, Executive Director of the Forum of Democratic Libya, talked about her nationwide mobilization effort to provide meals for people affected or displaced during the turbulent fighting in Libya which broke out in February 2010.

The event concluded with a meeting with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė who shared her own evolution into political activism following Lithuania’s restoration of democracy in 1990. President Grybauskaitė encouraged the participants in their endeavors stating, “To be political, you will always pay a price. It is a challenge you take on for life. But for equality and democratic values, it is worth fighting every day.”

Participants at the forum presented President Grybauskaitė with a list of five recommendations for the OSCE member states to adopt with regards to supporting regional and global efforts to increase effective women’s participation in democratic governance, asking her to include the recommendations in OSCE’s Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality. Botti reminded participants that this endeavor gave them an element of control over their futures, stating, “You are agents of change.”