Slovenia
Slovenia announced its intention to adopt a Feminist Foreign Policy in January 2023, through its Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tanja Fajon, at the 26th Consultation of Slovenian Diplomacy (Government of Slovenia, August 2023). On International Women’s Day, Tanja Fajon went on record to say that Slovenia’s Feminist Foreign Policy would be conceptualized, shaped, and drafted with inputs from civil society, with roundtables bringing stakeholders for consultations. The date set for the feminist foreign policy was June 24, 2023, but no official policy has been released yet.
This commitment was also Affirmed by the President of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, who participated in the United States Summit for Democracy debate on “The Status of Women is the Status of Democracy” on March 28, 2023 (Musar, 2023), in the UN Water Conference in 2023 (Fajon, 2023), and at a business forum in Vietnam (Government of Slovenia in Vietnam, 2023). In May 2023, Slovenia also centred its intention to adopt a feminist foreign policy to promote the equal, full, and meaningful representation of “both” genders in the design and implementation of approaches and strategies toward cybersecurity (Government of Slovenia at ITU 2023).
Slovenia has demonstrated commitment to supporting and implementing the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, having most recently taken an active stand against all forms of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity at the 53rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (Government of Slovenia at the UNHRC, 2023). During its tenure as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from 2024 to 2025 (Maček, 2023), Slovenia intends to prioritize the Women Peace and Security Agenda (Thompson et al. 2023).
Slovenia had the highest number of female MPs in its history, the first female President of Parliament, and a female Minister of Foreign Affairs, all in 2022. Over half its diplomats are women, and over 60% of top managerial roles in the foreign services are held by women. However, in terms of its official development assistance under the OECD-DAC regime, Slovenia recently cut its budgetary allocation for programming with the advancement of gender equality as a significant and principal focus, from 25% to 6%, and from 12% to 6%, respectively (Thompson et al. 2023).
While an official policy is still to be developed and released for public consumption, it seems likely that Slovenia might follow most of its predecessors by focusing on the rights, representation, and resources framework.
References
Fajon, S. (March 23, 2023). Supporting gender equality in the Water Action Agenda with Global Multi-stakeholder effort (UN 2023 Water Conference Side Event) [Video]. UN Web TV. https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1hvigklde
Government of Slovenia in Vietnam. (May 22, 2023). Minister Fajon opens a business forum in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic centre of Vietnam. https://www.gov.si/en/news/2023-05-22-minister-fajon-opens-a-business-forum-in-ho-chi-minh-city-the-economic-centre-of-vietnam/
Government of Slovenia at ITU. (May 22, 2023). Slovenian activities with ITU – building cyber capacity in the Western Balkans. https://www.gov.si/en/news/2023-05-22-slovenian-activities-with-itu-building-cyber-capacity-in-the-western-balkans/
Government of Slovenia. (August 3, 2023). Minister Fajon presents feminist foreign policy as a modern, future-oriented policy. https://www.gov.si/en/news/2023-03-08-minister-fajon-presents-feminist-foreign-policy-as-a-modern-future-oriented-policy/
Government of Slovenia at the UNHRC. (July 14, 2023). Rights of women and girls, new technologies and the state of human rights around the world discussed in Geneva. https://www.gov.si/en/news/2023-07-14-rights-of-women-and-girls-new-technologies-and-the-state-of-human-rights-around-the-world-discussed-in-geneva/
Maček, S. (2023, June 7). Slovenia elected non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Euractiv. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/slovenia-elected-non-permanent-member-of-the-un-security-council/
Musar, N. (2023). Speech of the President of the Republic of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar at the thematic debate on gender equity and equality. https://www.predsednicaslo.si/assets/documents/2023-03-28-Speech-of-the-President-of-the-Republic-of-Slovenia-at-the-discussion-The-Status-of-Women-is-the-Status-of-Democracy-Summit-for-Democracy-v4.pdf
Thompson, L., Ahmed, S., Silva, B., and Montilla, J. (2023). Defining Feminist Foreign Policy: The 2023 Edition. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTA4rbtXh5fkilcjm0cLMGSH_vZaOfre/view
