President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca addressed the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society in Rome, during the session ‘Universal Values: Peace and Security’.

The President said that “peace is not just the absence of war”, and urged those present to work together in synergy in order to build a culture of positive peace, which only starts when each and every member of our society is treated as a valued collaborator within society. “Only then can we –as people, communities, nations, and regions – truly achieve sustainable and positive peace”, the President insisted.

President Coleiro Preca called for more women to be present on the peace-making table, and appealed for energies to be focused on the promotion of women’s role in processes of peace-building within our nations. She added that in order for peace-building initiatives to have sustainable and long-term benefits, women’s unique contributions must be included at every step of the journey.

“There is this very important saying which states that if you educate a woman, you will educate the child, you will educate the family, and you will educate the community because women are leaders, and we need to bring more women from communities to our negotiation tables, to build peace from the communities upwards through a bottom-up approach”, the President concluded.