President Grybauskaitė elected to chair the Council of Women World Leaders

President Dalia Grybauskaitė was elected Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders in New York. The Council is a network of most influential women world leaders – current and former women presidents and prime ministers.

The Lithuanian President became a member of this Council in 2009. Among the members of the Council are also German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, South Korean President Geun-hye Park, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Argentine’s President Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, and other heads of state.

According to the President, work on this Council is the recognition of Lithuania’s leadership and yet another opportunity for our country to increase its visibility not only in Europe, but also across the world. One of the top priorities of the President as chair of the Council will be to further mobilize women heads of state for common tasks and to encourage women around the world to become leaders and assume responsibility for the future of their countries.

The Council of Women World Leaders is a forum allowing women heads of state to share best practices, promote greater engagement of women in key decision-making processes and to take initiatives in resolving issues of importance for women around the world.

The Council, established in 1996 by Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland, and former Irish President Mary Robinson, has 49 members. The Lithuanian President will succeed in this position Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland.

The Council of Women World Leaders has an affiliation with The UN Foundation and is located at the UN Foundation office in Washington DC.