{"id":56320,"date":"2025-11-19T15:56:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/thirty-years-after-beijing-kigali-hosts-francophonie-talks-on-women-s-rights\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:05:08","slug":"thirty-years-after-beijing-kigali-hosts-francophonie-talks-on-women-s-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/thirty-years-after-beijing-kigali-hosts-francophonie-talks-on-women-s-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Thirty years after Beijing, Kigali hosts Francophonie talks on women\u2019s rights and equality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Held for the first time in the country, the session marks a historic moment for Rwanda, which has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) since its founding in 1970. <\/p>\n

The meeting takes place under the theme \u201cThirty Years After Beijing: The Role of Women in the Francophone World,\u201d coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, whose Action Plan continues to shape global standards for women\u2019s rights and gender equality.<\/p>\n

In her opening remarks, Chief Justice Domitilla Mukantaganzwa, representing the Government of Rwanda, expressed \u201cthe pride of Rwanda in hosting for the first time one of the high governing bodies of La Francophonie.\u201d<\/p>\n

She highlighted the significance of this year\u2019s theme, noting that the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted in 1995, continues to stand, thirty years on, as the most forward-looking global framework for promoting women\u2019s rights and gender equality.<\/p>\n

\"Domitilla<\/figure>\n

Highlighting global challenges such as ongoing conflicts, the climate crisis, socio-economic inequalities, and gender-based violence, she stressed the need for strong political will to safeguard hard-won progress and to build more inclusive societies. <\/p>\n

She pointed to Rwanda\u2019s own experience, noting that after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, the country chose to rebuild by placing women at the heart of its transformation. <\/p>\n

Mukantaganzwa noted that women have since played a decisive role in the justice sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly half of all judges are women. In the Gacaca courts, they played a determining role in truth-seeking and reconciliation, and today they represent half of the community mediators and community workers active across the country,\u201d she emphasised.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s Delegate Minister for Francophonie, \u00c9l\u00e9onore Caroit, praised Rwanda\u2019s leadership and stated that the Francophonie, bound by a shared language, embodies values of openness and practical cooperation. <\/p>\n

She noted that this format often proves more effective for building bridges than many mechanisms currently at a standstill. Caroit expressed confidence that the two days of discussions would produce tangible outcomes and commended Rwanda\u2019s engagement.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9l\u00e9onore<\/figure>\n

In her address, Secretary-General of La Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo underscored the central theme of the conference, questioning whether societies have fully recognised \u201cthe fundamental role women must play in social cohesion and peaceful coexistence.\u201d <\/p>\n

She noted that the world still struggles to \u201cclearly and fully recognise the rights and value of half its population,\u201d adding with humour that this half may well be \u201cthe better half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mushikiwabo also addressed the state of global governance, describing the multilateral system as \u201ca model that is running out of steam,\u201d increasingly unable to respond to international crises and \u201cdisconnected from realities on the ground.\u201d She said this context would guide ministers\u2019 closed-door discussions on the question: \u201cWhat ambitions for the OIF in the reshaping of the international landscape?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OIF<\/figure>\n

Reviewing progress since the 2024 CMF in Paris, Mushikiwabo noted the Organisation\u2019s support to member States through electoral assistance missions and its \u201chigh-impact campaigns\u201d against disinformation in Lebanon, Moldova and the Central African Republic. <\/p>\n

She also emphasised efforts to support Francophone candidates for leadership positions in international bodies including the African Union, the African Development Bank and UNESCO.<\/p>\n

She highlighted programmatic achievements such as the mobility initiative for French teachers, which brought a third cohort of 50 educators from 15 countries to Kigali to exchange expertise with Rwandan counterparts. <\/p>\n

Recent deployments to Ghana and Seychelles were noted, with Cambodia next. Mushikiwabo also pointed to the strengthening of the Francophonie \u00e9conomique, citing successful missions like the one to Benin, which resulted in several contracts, including one worth \u20ac30 million.<\/p>\n

Reaffirming the OIF\u2019s commitment to gender equality, she called for increased support to the \u201cFrancophonie With Women\u201d fund and invited member States to join a new initiative focused on training and integrating girls and women in emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

She paid tribute to Rwanda\u2019s progress, noting that women hold 61 percent of parliamentary seats, the highest rate in the world and far above the global average of 26.4%.<\/p>\n

She also highlighted that five of Rwanda\u2019s seven major banks are headed by women, many of them young. Mushikiwabo added that other regions in the Francophone world are also advancing, citing Vietnam where \u201c98 percent of girls complete primary school and 87 percent complete secondary school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delegations will conduct field visits on Thursday and Friday to observe key OIF programmes, including teacher training, peacekeeping preparation for military personnel and women\u2019s economic empowerment projects under the \u201cFrancophonie With Women\u201d fund.<\/p>\n

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The 46th Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie (CMF) opened in Kigali on Wednesday, November 19, bringing together more than 400 delegates from 65 member States and governments for a two-day gathering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000097923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000097923,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/img-20251119-wa0071-bd190.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/img-20251119-wa0071-bd190.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/img-20251119-wa0071-bd190.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/img-20251119-wa0071-bd190.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/img-20251119-wa0071-bd190.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/img-20251119-wa0071-bd190.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000097923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56320"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56320"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}