Belarusian delegation took part in the international conference “East and West meet in St. Petersburg”

On October 17-19, the XXV international women’s conference “East-West meets in St. Petersburg” was held in St. Petersburg with the support of the Government of St. Petersburg.

The conference became a platform for sharing best practices in the development of global and digital thinking, ideas, women entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, application of modern technologies, to create regional and international humanitarian and business contacts in order to implement the national strategy of actions in interests of women and Sustainable Development Goals.

According to the organizers, the conference was attended by women from 35 countries.

“The delegation from the Republic of Belarus consists of representatives of the most authoritative and mass women’s public organization of the country — the Belarusian Union of women – representing civil servants, business representatives, heads of organizations, youth leaders. And we look forward to new acquaintances and contacts in St. Petersburg”, Deputy Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, national coordinator on achieveing Sustainable Development Goals, Chairwoman of the Belarusian Union of women Marianna Shchetkina said in her speech.

She also stressed that modern women have incredible opportunities in politics, and research shows that women’s participation in governance is a stabilizing factor. At the same time, there are still few women in world politics, and further joint activities aimed at ensuring their rights are needed.

She cited statistics from UN women, which showed that in 18 countries husbands could physically prevent wives from working, 39 countries had no equal inheritance rights for daughters and sons, and 49 states had no laws protecting women from domestic violence.

“The gender policy of our country is based on universally recognized international norms, and the National strategy for sustainable socio-economic development until 2030 determines that the achievement of gender equality is one of the basic principles of sustainable development of the country”, Marianna Shchetkina said.

The national coordinator also suggested that more attention should be paid to the involvement of young people in gender equality issues at the international level.

“By Involving young people in the implementation of socio-economic and political tasks we contribute to their formation and development, ensure continuity in the policy and decision-making. Focusing on young women in this work, we create conditions for further promotion of the principles of equality in society” – summed up Marianna Shchetkina.