WEF for women: former Swiss minister honoured for political leadership
Former minister Simonetta Sommaruga was awarded the honorary “Trailblazer Award” in Reykjavik, Iceland. It is awarded to women who have reached the highest levels of political leadership. In the Icelandic capital she took part in the “WEF for Women”.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
The former Swiss minister was invited as a politician to the 6th “Reykjavik Global Forum – Women Political Leaders” because she has long and persistently been committed to women’s political issues, her media spokeswoman announced in advance.
Sommaruga said he was honoured by the award on Monday. In her speech, she pointed out that, especially in times of war and terror, women are at risk of being pushed out of political leadership and from the public eye. This shouldn’t be allowed. “On the contrary, we need more women in political leadership.”
The population’s trust in politics depends on women and men working together to provide answers “to the pressing challenges of our time.” According to Sommaruga, human rights, peace and democracy only exist with women – and not against them. “We want everyone to understand this, and we women will not stop fighting for it,” Sommaruga continued.
The international “WPL Trailblazer Award” is given to current and former presidents and prime ministers who have reached the highest level of political leadership. Former Finnish President Tarja Halonen was honoured along with Sommaruga. Previous winners include Finland’s former Prime Minister Sanna Marin and the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Now the prize is going to Switzerland for the first time.
Especially in times of war and terror, women are increasingly being pushed out of political leadership bodies, Sommaruga was quoted as saying in the Reykjavik Global Forum’s press release: “We cannot allow this.”
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Swiss theatre director breaks with tradition at Vienna’s Rathausplatz
This content was published on
With the proclamation of the "Free Republic of Vienna", the start of the festival on Friday evening was unusually political.
Swiss foreign minister backs Berset at Council of Europe
This content was published on
Cassis described Berset as the "ideal candidate" to help the Council realise its aim of ensuring security and peace in Europe.
Gay conversion therapy banned in Swiss canton of Valais
This content was published on
On Thursday, the canton approved a new Health Act which includes a ban on therapies aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity.
This content was published on
Some aspects of pro-Palestine sit-ins have gone too far, but the right to protest and debate must be upheld, the student association has said.
Swiss LGTBIQ helpline: attacks more than doubled in 2023
This content was published on
Three organisations jointly operating a helpline have called for more awareness, action and funding to address discrimination.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Mary Robinson, human rights champion
This content was published on
In this week’s instalment of Inside Geneva, our correspondent Imogen Foulkes talks to former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.