Taking a feminist approach to international relations: easy read

Taking a Feminist Approach to International Relations

The Scottish Government cares about gender equality and fairness. We will use our international work to promote this.

Women, girls and oppressed groups everywhere deserve equality.

We want to give people a platform to speak for themselves and influence decisions.

This will be developed with guidance from people and groups with different experiences.

There are 6 principles guiding this approach. These principles are:

Transformative -

This means change. We will look at the things that are stopping equality and look for ways to fix them.

Intersectional -

This means understanding things can affect different groups of people in different ways.

Equitable -

We will work to reduce inequalities faced by all groups to make Scotland and the world a more equal place for everyone.

Participatory -

We will work with women, girls and other groups in Scotland and across the world to guide our policy.

Consistent -

We will apply a feminist approach to our international actions that works with progressive priorities in Scotland.

Accountable -

We will be open and honest about how this policy works at home and abroad, and the impact it has.

The Scottish Government wants to make sure no one is denied rights or opportunities because of their gender.

This focus on equality and human rights will be the same for our work in Scotland and our work in the rest of the world.

A fair world needs people with lots of different perspectives and experiences. They will help to make fairer decisions that work for everyone.

Scottish Government staff in Scotland and abroad will be engaged on feminist principles and how to apply this to international policies.

We will use this learning to:

• Build a strong feminist culture
• Assess the impact of policies on human rights
• Make economic decisions with human rights in mind
• Develop an Equality and Human Rights Strategy by setting up centres of expertise
• Remember how important feminist principles and contributions made by women are
• Involve senior leaders in Scottish Government and elsewhere
• Take a human rights based approach to reduce inequality
• Work with the Global South Advisory Panel.

All of these things will support the four main focuses of this approach. These are:

• International development and humanitarian
• Climate justice
• Trade
• Peace and security.

Our approach will focus on how things affect inequality and insecurity.

This approach also aims to:

• Reflect the values of the people of Scotland.
• Keep in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
• Track the progress for reducing inequality.

Our Feminist approach to international relations will support fairness and inclusion in Scotland. It will also support fairness overseas.