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The Women in Law Conference | Vienna | September 12-14, 2024

Katrīna Kaktiņa

Ambassador | Permanent Mission of the Republic of Latvia to the UN, OSCE and other International Organizations

Katrīna Kaktiņa

Ambassador | Permanent Mission of the Republic of Latvia to the UN, OSCE and other International Organizations
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Biography

Katrina Kaktina, lawyer by profession, passionate about International Public Law, diplomat by occupation with 18 years of experience in the Latvian Diplomatic Service. A strong believer in the benefits of gender equality, active about the issue both within and beyond professional duties. In private capacity – author of an initiative to stop discriminating law in SRHR in Latvia in 2016, that gathered enough support for the Parliament not to adopt the discriminatory amendments, in professional capacity advocating for ratification of the Istanbul Convention and mainstreaming gender equality in decision making.

 

Still too often women are overlooked and forgotten when deciding on promotions or other career opportunities. There are still too many “manels” in conferences under the pretext of “we need the best experts”. But, just like in other professions, we cannot win the game with just half of the team, we cannot push the development of humankind with just half of the population and we cannot protect the interests of all well enough if we do not have everyone in the profession and we do not take into account specific needs of everyone. Everyone is and must be believed to be equal, and we must start here with ourselves and with our own stereotypes to break the barriers.

 

Photo by Boriss Kolesnikovs