The Government of Spain is committed at the highest level to feminist foreign policy, to policy that transforms society and addresses the root causes of gender inequality, to policy that seeks to dismantle the gender stereotypes that make it harder for women to access the highest echelons of power, leadership and decision-making.
The participation of women in decision-making in all areas, including politics, diplomacy and international relations, is one of our foreign policy priorities. Spain, moreover, champions parity in leadership and decision-making positions in the bodies and agencies of the United Nations and in other multilateral forums. This reflects the principles of our legislation and our human rights-based approach.
To celebrate the outstanding work of women in diplomacy and international relations, every year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation will honour a woman or civil society organization with the Isabel Oyarzábal Award. The recipients will be women and organizations that are widely recognized for their service and dedication to diplomacy and international relations and that have worked to defend democracy and human rights.
The award is named for Isabel Oyarzábal— Spain's first woman ambassador and, as such, Spain's first woman ambassador to Sweden and Chargé d'affaires in Finland, holding these positions between 1936 and 1939 under the Second Spanish Republic. Oyarzábal was also the only woman to serve on the League of Nations' Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery. In 1933, she was appointed Adviser to the Spanish Delegation to the Seventeenth Session of the International Labour Conference, held in Geneva. She also took part in the Eighth Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, held in Geneva in 1920, as one of the Spanish delegates.
Isabel Oyarzábal was a lifelong defender of democracy and women's rights— and especially of the right of women to participate in public and political life at the highest levels—in addition being to an outspoken critic of racism and slavery.