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A three-person delegation of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), headed by Ms Asghedet Mehreteab, Chairperson of the EPDP Women’s League, took active part at the Gender Equality Conference of the global Progressive Alliance (PA) held in Luzern, Switzerland, between 24-26 October, 2025.  The same delegation also seized the opportunity of taking part in the afternoon of 25 October at a lively and well attended  congress of the Swiss Socialist Party held in a township near Luzern.

EPDP delegates ar PA Luzern conference

It is to be noted that, as founding-member in Leipzig, Germany, 12 years ago, EPDP high-level delegations have been attending and representing Eritrea at several Progressive Alliance conferences that were held in Tunis, Brussels, Rotterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and at several other PA-member party congresses in Scandinavian and other Western European metropolis.

The current PA Gender Equality Conference, hosted by the Swiss Socialist Party (SP), was addressed and attended by nearly 100 women leaders representing parties from 48 countries. Africa was represented by seven PA member parties from Cameroon, Eritrea/EPDP, Ghana, Nigeria, Eswatini (former Swaziland), Morocco and Western Sahara. The main theme of the conference was ‘advancing feminist political leadership,  security and peace.’    

Following welcoming remarks by top officials of the host party, Ms Machris Cabreros of the Philippines, who is the current Coordinator of the Progressive Alliance, opened the conference by calling for re-energizing the feminist struggle in every country. She also commended the host party for becoming a good example for all PA parties by having co-chairpersons, a man and a woman, leading their SP. Also making opening speeches were the two co-chairpersons of the PA Gender Equality Working Group who stressed the need of promoting the idea of bringing women to equal decision-making processes.

The PA Coordinator then invited to the podium the keynote speaker, Ms Simonetta Sommaruga, SP member and former President of Switzerland. In a rousing speech that urged all women to stand up for their rights and real freedom, Ms Sommaruga described her own country as one of the “least family friendly” countries in the world and denounced almost all world countries for still embracing “the scandal of pay inequality” for women.

Ms Marianne Mikko, Vice-chair of the UN CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women), said any mediation or other action for prevention of global conflicts requires 50% participation of women starting NOW.

On her part, Brazil’s minister for women affairs said “no peace without social justice” and that there cannot be “true democracy without the voice of women.” 

The conference had three panel discussion sessions with about 20 presenters who were later welcomed questions and comments from conference participants. The panel discussion themes were  on 1) enabling feminist leadership in uncertain times like today’s world; 2) lessons on countering online gender-based violence; and 3) shaping women, peace, and security agenda.

Practically every speaker had come up with rich experiences and novel ideas that would boost the global struggle for promoting gender equality. Equally educational and inspiring to conference participants was the exchange of ideas in group chats and the sharing of addresses for continued networking. As such, the EPDP Women’s League will as of now be connected to all exchange of views with PA women.

The Eritrean delegation led Ms Asghedet, a strong Eritrean fighter for women rights,  made good use of the event by holding bilateral talks with several key participants including the keynote speaker Sommaruga, the UN CEDAW vice-chairperson, the PA Coordinator, Ms Cabreros, and several others.

Attending Swiss Party Congress

The other important event of the past weekend was the attendance of the PA delegations at the regular congress of the Swiss Socialist Party held in a township outside Luzern. On arrival at the congress venue, welcoming remarks were made by the SP co-chairpersons and a PA Board member from the Swiss party, expressing warm solidarity with all progressive and democratic sister parties in the Progressive Alliance. Ms Cabrero, the PA Coordinator, also expressed gratitude of the alliance to the SP both for hosting the PA conference and for inviting its delegations to their party congress.During the three hours that PA delegations stayed at the SP congress, the deliberations continued without any drawback in spite of the debates that raged in all the four Swiss languages – German, French, Italian and Romansh, a language spoken only by 1% of the Swiss population. (More details will follow in Tigrinya versions of the report).