8th March 2021
Colombo, Sri Lanka
The UK Chooses To Challenge: How The British High Commission and British Council are championing gender quality in Sri Lanka? Each year, on 8 March, the world comes together to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD). We advocate for women’s equality, honour the achievements of women and support female-focused organisations. This is all aimed at striving […]
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4th March 2021
Canberra
International Women’s Day is 8 March and this year the theme is #ChooseToChallenge. This theme really resonates with me, as a mixed race woman who was born in Malaysia –without any British ancestry – I think my presence alone can challenge some people’s expectations as to what a British High Commissioner should or could be. […]
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14th October 2020
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) The campaign for local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina is about to begin. While there are many things we do not yet know about how those elections will run, we can be confident that women – as candidates, as decision-makers, and as […]
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15th July 2019
While gender equality is improving in Cyprus, there is still more to do. Women in leadership positions in particular remain few. To promote gender equality and female leadership, the British High Commissioner in Cyprus Stephen Lillie welcomed a 17 year old young woman, Danae Xanthi, to shadow him for a day on 24 June to […]
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4th December 2018
Skopje, North Macedonia
Changing the statistics by raising awareness: as part of the global conversations in these #16DaysofActivism to raise awareness to end the gender based violence, we have asked Marija Bashevska, gender equality advocate to tell us what kind of effort is needed to end violence against women. Marija is currently president of the think-tank Reactor-Reasearh in Action in Macedonia. She is […]
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20th March 2017
London, UK
We recently celebrated International Women’s Day, a day when we can celebrate the achievements of women in history and around the world. It’s also a day when we look to address the barriers that hold back women. I was delighted to have been appointed to the new role of Special Envoy for Gender Equality. This […]
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7th March 2017
Vancouver, Canada
When I was on a posting in Ukraine in the early 2000s, International Women’s Day was largely considered to be a quirky remnant from a socialist era…
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20th June 2016
Geneva, Switzerland
In the months since the last Council session, Star Wars has come to dominate my home life. My son asks endless questions about the characters, while the rest of the family begrudgingly take turns to act them out. I’m most often cast as Jabba the Hutt while my Jedi son brandishes his light sabre and […]
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2nd November 2015
USA
Identity is complicated. As a British-Indian representing the UK overseas I had spent more time spelling my name than talking about gender. But that changed in 2011 when I became the first female British Consul General to San Francisco. A year later, I had the privilege of joining some of the brightest young Americans at […]
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26th October 2015
London, UK
I attended the United Nations General Assembly this year and was struck by the breadth of events designed to promote and protect women’s rights. There were celebrations to mark 20 years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the best international blueprint for realising women’s rights. We also reaffirmed our commitment […]
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