Brand South Africa on Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund

Your excellency
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening

I am truly honoured to be speaking at this important event

The work of the Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund matters because it recognises a simple but important truth:

women must have the freedom, resources, agency and voice to shape their communities and their futures.

When we speak about the freedom of women, we cannot separate freedom from safety.

A woman cannot be truly free if she is afraid in her own home, in her own street, in her workplace, or in her community.

That is why investing in women matters.

I'm talking about Investing in women peacebuilders, human-rights defenders, grassroots organisations, and particularly in women who are closest to the challenges their communities face.

I come from South Africa, where our Constitution guarantees women significant freedoms and protections.

These are freedoms that we value deeply.

But our experience has also taught us that rights written into law do not automatically become rights experienced in everyday life.

South Africa is confronting a serious crisis of gender-based violence and femicide.

Our government has recognised the urgency of this challenge and has prioritised it.

Gender-based violence and femicide has been classified as a national disaster. This is important because it strengthens accountability across the state and requires institutions to account for their response.

Government is acting. But government cannot solve this crisis alone.

We also have to look at ourselves as a society.

Speaking as a woman - we know that the question of 'how was she dressed' is completely misplaced. Perhaps some of the more important questions we need to ask is: how are we raising the boy child?

What are boys learning from us about women? About respect? About power?

And when we see behaviour that diminishes women, disrespects them, threatens them, or begins to normalise violence, what do we do?

Do we challenge it? Or do we look away?

South Africans have demonstrated the power of citizens to demand that accountability.

More than a million South Africans signed a petition calling for stronger action on gender-based violence and femicide.

Citizens demanded more from their government, and government responded.

That is the relationship we need.

Government must act. Society must act. And we must hold each other accountable.

But our concern for women's freedom does not end in South Africa.

In South Africa, women have constitutional freedoms that many women and girls around the world are still fighting to secure.

The freedom to learn.
The freedom to work & earn a living.
The freedom to lead.
The freedom to speak.
We are supposed to have the freedom to go for a run without fear….

We cannot take these freedoms for granted. And we cannot be comfortable enjoying freedoms that millions of other women and girls are still denied.

Their freedom matters to us. Their safety matters to us.

So we must continue to invest in women.

We must amplify their voices.

We must refuse to look away.

And we must keep pressure on the institutions established to protect women to deliver on the promise of our laws.

Because the freedom and safety of women is not simply a women's issue.

It is a measure of the society we are building, and the world we are prepared to fight for.

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