The Croatian Presidency of the Adriatic Charter Regional Initiative (A-5) organized today the Virtual High Level Conference on “Women’s contribution to peace and security, lessons learned and challenges ahead”, with the participation of Foreign Ministers of A5 member countries. In this activity, our country was represented by the Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Agron Tare.

During the meeting, it was emphasized that the Croatian presidency of A5 has chosen this topic, believing it is the right moment to exchange experiences and opinions on the achievements and challenges in implementing the agenda on women, peace and security, while it was stressed that the Adriatic Charter countries are committed to this agenda, to follow the work done globally in recent years.

The conference reflected the fact that Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security, constitutes a normative framework in support of meaningful participation and leadership of women, in all matters related to peace and security.

In his speech Deputy Minister Agron Tare, underlined among other things, that Albania has supported this Resolution since the beginning. Albania ranks among many other countries that have drafted and implemented the National Action Plans to accelerate the implementation of UNSCR1325.

In this context, the Albanian government in 2016 approved the third National Strategy on Gender Equality (2016-2020) and in September 2018, the National Action Plan 2018-2020 for its implementation. In recent years, according to Deputy Minister Tare, Albania has significantly increased the representation of women in every sphere of life, such as in parliament, public administration, army, police, etc., in full compliance with the obligations arising from the UN agenda on this issue.

Further, Deputy Minister Tare stressed the fact that this topic had a special dimension during the Albanian chairmanship of the OSCE during 2020, supporting the OSCE initiative for combating violence against women and protection of their rights.

Also, in the framework of Albania’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council for 2022-2023, Albania plans to support the equal participation of women in all international efforts for peace and security.