Women and men, children and the elderly, persons belonging to national minorities and the majority are all different. But they all should have equal rights, and should have equal opportunities taking part in and forming the societies of tomorrow. This demands dialogue: active, engaged and mutual listening, leading to an enriched understanding and appreciation of those differences. Such an open dialogue will foster both a deeper respect for each other, and a readiness to compromise in order to achieve common solutions which everyone has had a chance to influence.

But dialogue in the Covid-19 world is not open to all. Our familiar physical meeting spaces have been replaced by a virtual space; meeting online requires support with hardware and software. If we manage to give this support also to persons belonging to vulnerable minorities living far away from the big cities, we should seize the possibility to give them a stronger voice in our democratic debate than they had before – when we could meet in person.

The support needs to be put in place now in order to make sure that the dialogue starts and takes place on an equal footing: for women and men, the old and the young, minorities and the majority.

And we should be alert that these categories do not exist in isolation from one another. Not only on International Women’s Day, but every day, we should be vocal about the particular situation of minority women; their voices may be disregarded for more than one reason, coming as they do from the intersection of characteristics which marginalise them yet further. As much as minorities may be excluded, minority women may be shut out.

So let us renew our efforts and provide the support necessary for all to take part in the dialogue about how to create our future societies with equal opportunities for all.

Statement by Marie B. Hagsgård President of the Advisory Committee on the FCNM