The French Embassy in Kosovo, in cooperation with the Municipality of Pristina, has signed a cooperation agreement for the prevention of violence, the protection of victims, and the enhancement of public safety. As part of this initiative, an application was also introduced through which women can report sexual harassment or unsafe situations in public spaces, KosovaPress reports.
Additionally, at the French Institute today, a feminist literature corner was opened, as well as another corner representing women.
The French Ambassador to Kosovo, Oliver Guerot, said that feminist diplomacy is an integral part of French diplomacy and is implemented in several directions, starting with internal institutional policies.
“Feminist diplomacy is an integral part of French diplomacy. It develops in various directions. First, inwards, because we have to do our own homework. This means making sure that young female colleagues will have equal access to higher positions… We have a goal of having 40% of our first-time ambassadors being women, and we have reached this goal in the last years… Also, inwards, it’s about a zero-tolerance policy. In the embassy, we have focal points. In the Ministry, we have hotlines so that every colleague will be able to call for help. if there is an awkward situation, if there is harassment, if there is sexual harassment, if there are sexist attitudes. The name of the program is Zero Tolerance, and we are doing that very seriously. Each and every embassy has to have a focal point,” said Guerot.
The Municipality of Pristina, according to its mayor Përparim Rama, is working towards empowering women through education, culture and institutional support.
“I’m delighted that also at the Municipality of Pristina, we align in terms of our approach to empowering women, not only through literature, but also through processes, and we have invested a lot in our education system, because the best way to empower our women, to actually provide them with the opportunity, equal opportunity to get educated, and then also with our cabinets and positions, to ensure that not only we meet the criteria, but also we exceed it, that we do have, let’s say, at least 50-50 representation, so that women do feel empowered. And we do this in many fields, you know, not only through education, but through sports, through culture. We work actually with several NGOs that we’re now opening up galleries and theatres to empower also women founders of these organizations, and also managing and management positions, and with special grants for women in business to help them,” Rama claimed.
