On 17 October 2019, the two-day Conference “Taking Action to Improve Women’s Participation in Public and Political Decision-Making” was launched in Sochi, Russian Federation. The Conference was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe/EU Joint Project “Co-operation on the implementation of the Russian Federation National Action Strategy for Women 2017-2022”.
At the Conference, the research on equal participation of women and men in public and political life in the Russian Federation developed in the framework of the project by was presented. The research was prepared by a team of a national and international experts. The event aimed at raising awareness of women’s participation in public and political decision-making in the Russian Federation and exchanging good practices and experiences of other countries; and discussing specific actions to promote equal participation of women in public and political decision-making with a focus on legal, policy and institutional measures.
Russian partners of the project were represented by First Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection Alexey Vovchenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Mikhail Vinogradov, Head of Division of the Department of European Co-operation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Kashin-Padun. The Council of Europe was represented by the Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in the Russian Federation Petr Sich and the Head of Gender Equality Division Caterina Bolognese. The Delegation of the European Union to Russia was represented by the Head of Political Section Jolita Pons and Foreign Policy Instrument (FPI) Programme Manager Eleni Vossou.
The event was attended by the representatives of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, regional ombudspersons, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, representatives of regional and local administrations, as well as NGOs and academia. Experts from Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, France, Moldova, Norway, Great Britain and Spain also participated in the Conference with the aim of sharing their national good practices in the area of women’s participation in public and political life.
