Women's Issues

Canada (Ms. Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs), the G7 presidency, and the EU (Ms. Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) hosted this meeting on such themes as promoting women's empowerment; women, peace and security; rules-based international order; and eliminating violence against women, inviting women foreign ministers from around the world and the G7 foreign ministers. Women foreign ministers from 16 countries attended. Minister Kono was the only male participant.

1. Minister Kono attended the working dinner on September 21 and the breakfast with the civil society on September 22.
2. At the working dinner on September 21, a variety of views were expressed regarding current international affairs, primarily from the perspective of women. Minister Kono explained the situation of the active role played by women in Japan and invited the participants to the World Assembly for Women (WAW!) and Women 20 (W20) to be held in March 2019, in which many participants expressed strong interest.
3. At the breakfast with the civil society on September 22, attended by members of the civil society including Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, Amnesty International, ICAN, Quebec Native Women, and Association for Women in Media, discussion took place on the role and contribution of the civil society towards resolving a range of international and regional issues, and the importance of government-civil society partnership was underscored.

(Reference) Countries participating in the meeting
Hosts: Canada, EU
G7: Japan
Women foreign ministers: Andorra, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Honduras, Kenya, Namibia, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, St. Lucia, South Africa, Sweden