Mr Wilfried Marxer, President of the Association for Human Rights, Liechtenstein So, looking at Liechtenstein, there was a popular initiative. We have direct democracy here, of course. We have these civic initiatives and referendums, and we had initiative on introducing quotas in politics. So, you would have, say, equal representation of men and women in parliament. Now, that was rejected, and we have to live with that. And so, we have now to embark on a laborious process, try to raise consciousness and we have to put women into leadership positions. But that of course is the job of political parties in politics. They have to promote women and make sure they are given prominence in election campaigns, for example. But you have to make sure that all the various preconditions are in place. If you look at local authorities, for example, meetings are held in the evening and a lot of women say, well, I cannot take part in meetings in the evening. So, all kinds of small changes that would be helpful and that I think, would bring about greater representation. I remember in 1968, for example, when you had the first girls attending grammar schools because prior to that date it had only been boys and you actually had then higher proportions of girls passing their school, leaving examinations. But again, this is a process. I mean, you have to look at the root causes. You mean, are there some careers which are not particularly attractive to women? Are women not promoted sufficiently within companies? Is it possibly difficult to reconcile a part-time job with a leadership role? Is it difficult to work from home and have leadership jobs? I mean, look at all the potential that is there, particularly look at education. It is something that we should capitalise on for society but also make sure that people are able to fully realise their personal potential. So, make sure they can be involved in politics as well as work perhaps in the care sector as well as in their families. But again, that is something where men have to do their bit and not simply expect all of that to fall to women. It is not sufficient simply to have equality of opportunity at legal level. You have to make sure that is possible at a practical level and women can fulfil that potential.

Ms Mariia Mezentseva, Chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly Thank you, Mr Marxer, to mention one important thing, and this is, of course education. How do we present the understanding of young girls to be addressing the issue of their further jobs and workplaces? That a girl can become an engineer, IT specialist, fly to the space and many other technical issues. Funny to say, going from Zurich here, I saw in the parking lot special spaces. It says ladies and they are painted in red. There are different ways of encouraging women being part, being active part in the society. But the final effect of every member State is coming also from educating our population. And this is extremely important. Thank you for being a promoter of women's rights and empowerment while being a man. Thank you so much for your professional work. We go ahead to our dear friend and speaker who is very well known to you, dear colleagues. And this is Rósa Björk Brynjólfsdóttir, our dear colleague and she's a member of the Selection Panel of the Vigdís Prize for Women’s Empowerment and currently works in the Office of the Prime Minister of Iceland. Dear Rósa, you were closely involved in the creation of the Vigdís Prize, and I can only imagine what it symbolises personally to you, but also for all Icelandic women. And this is named after your President. We have seen in this important short movie how she empowered not only the office, the institution of the President, but also all the women around, being meanwhile the only woman at the table. How do you think we can see the award meaning generally for such country as Iceland?

Ms Rósa Björk Brynjólfsdóttir, member of the Selection Panel of the Vigdís Prize for Women’s Empowerment, Office of the Prime Minister of Iceland So first of all, I want to express my gratitude for being here with you, dear colleagues and on this occasion, it is wonderful when we are opening the calls for candidates for this important award. So, Madame Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, she is actually regarded in Iceland as a national treasure. So, whenever she and her legacy are rewarded, we all feel extremely proud. And as our Prime Minister, Ms Katrín Jakobsdóttir said when we launched the Prize in Reykjavík, in Iceland, this spring at Vigdís Finnbogadóttir House, Katrin said Vigdís is the role model of a whole generation, my generation. And her influence is still great as she continues to be an important figure and presence in Iceland. She was a beloved President who influenced the public discourse in Iceland on many subjects. And as you mentioned, Mariia, it's not only the statues, but also what you achieve and what you put your accent on which issues. So, Madame Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, she had most influence, as we saw here in the video, on gender equality, environmental issues, cultural diversity and not least in the field of languages. So, her election as the first woman elected Head of State was of course phenomenal. But we have to remember it did not come out of the blue. Five years earlier, the first women's strike in Iceland had occurred and that resulted to the Icelandic Parliament issuing and passing a gender equality bill in 1976, thus adopting an official gender policy in the country. So, these were the events that led up to her election. But her election also made huge changes. It was not only symbolic. When she was elected as a divorced single mother, women only made up 5% of parliamentarians in Iceland. But when she ran

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