Time: 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Cost: FEW Members ¥2,000 / Guests ¥5,000 (supper and drinks included)
No advance reservation required.
Please note this is a women only event.

Venue: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ), Yurakucho Denki Building, 20th Floor (http://www.fccj.or.jp/~fccjyod2/aboutus/map)

Speaker: Ms Nelia Barnard, Counsellor: Political at the South African Embassy

Presentation title:
The foreign policy of South Africa with specific reference to the role of women and how it contributes to Africa’s development agenda.

Ms Barnard will share with us South Africa’s foreign policy priorities, notably in regard to the socio-economic development agenda of the country, as well as the African continent. She will highlight the role of women in this regard.

African black women in South Africa bore the brunt of Apartheid, because of migrant labor and were victims of influx control and pass laws. The Women’s March to Pretoria against enforced pass laws on 9 August 1956, contributed to ending Apartheid in 1994, as part of the country’s national liberation struggle and the eventual empowerment of its women. The famous chant of the march directed to the apartheid era Prime Minister, “Now you have touched the women, Strijdom! You have struck a rock (You have dislodged a boulder!) You will be crushed!” signaled that women would not be intimidated.

Former President Nelson Mandela illustrated that the upliftment and empowerment of women would be fundamental to strengthening the country’s democracy during his address to the first opening of South Africa’s democratically elected Parliament on 24 May 1994 when he boldly stated that “Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression”.

The goal of the modern day women’s movement is also to mobilise women towards a solidarity movement that will transcend all boundaries and make a difference to the lives of women worldwide.

Short biography:
Ms Nelia Barnard completed her honours studies (cum laude) in International Relations and Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria in 1989 where she was also a founding member of its Human Rights Committee. She is a career diplomat and started her diplomatic training from 1991-1992. She was appointed as Third/Second Secretary to the South African Embassy in Paris from 1994-1997. During this posting, she was responsible for re-establishing relations for South Africa with UN agencies in Paris, notably UNESCO, as well as with international organizations such as the OECD and various other technical bodies. She also served as Secretary to the UNESCO Africa Group in Paris. She participated as the South African delegate in various international conferences and meetings, such as the annual UNESCO General Conference proceedings, and specialized meetings such as to draft the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome.

Ms Barnard then served from 1998-2006 in the South African Department of Foreign Affairs in Pretoria in the Branch: Americas and Europe. During this period she was responsible for facilitating various high-level visits (eg presidential visits to France, Spain and Greece as well as from the France, the US, Italy and Greece). She participated in several departmental projects, of which most notably was her contributions as the only woman to the Task Team that drafted the conceptual framework for the New Africa Initiative (NAI) that later became the African Union’s socio-economic development plan, ie the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). She also coordinated the Working Committees that reported to the Ministerial Task Teams during the 9/11 attacks and the War on Iraq.

Ms Barnard was appointed as Counsellor: Political at the South African Embassy in Tokyo as from December 2005.