On 24 October 2022, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, met with the Ambassador of Canada for Women, Peace, and Security, Jacqueline O’Neill, to discuss cooperation between Latvia and Canada on the matters of gender equality.
Gender equality and women’s empowerment has been a long-time priority for Latvia in its work in international organisations and implementation of its development cooperation policy, the Parliamentary Secretary underlined. Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica informed the Ambassador about assistance provided by Latvia to Ukrainian women – victims of war crimes, and she noted that support for Ukrainian women and girls was one of Latvia’s development cooperation priorities. The Parliamentary Secretary commended Canada’s significant contribution to the promotion of Women, Peace and Security agenda at the global level and thanked Canada for support provided to Latvia.
The Canadian Ambassador shared Canada’s experience in the promotion of gender equality, including in the field of security and defence. The Ambassador spoke about the importance of gender advisors in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica drew attention to the level of women’s representation in the Latvian defence sector, pointing out that the National Armed Forces of Latvia had one of the highest percentages of women’s representation among the armed forces of NATO member states.
At the conclusion of their conversation, the officials agreed on continued cooperation in the area of Women, Peace and Security.
Background information
The United Nations Security Council resolutions on the issues of Women, Peace and Security marked the beginning of a new process in the promotion of international peace and security, focusing in particular on the prevention of gender-based violence and highlighting representation and involvement of women in conflict resolution and peacekeeping processes.
Latvia is implementing its National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security for 2020–2050.
Canada is currently putting into effect its second Action Plan. In 2019, Canada appointed Jacqueline O’Neill as the country’s first Ambassador for Women, Peace, and Security for Global Affairs.