Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga engages British audiences on the subject of “Women, Development and Democracy”

Oct 28, 2018News

On 27-28 March, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, President of the World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid, during her trip to the United Kingdom, she participated in the events that marked the Centenary of Latvia’s statehood in London and Edinburgh.

Dr. Vaira Viķe-Freiberga is in the middle of the photo. She is former President of Latvia (1999-2007) and currently President of the World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid – which is in partnership with the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation to the AIWS 7-Layer Model to Build Next Generation Democracy.

President Vaira Viķe-Freiberga took part in the events that made a milestone of 100-year statehood in London and Edinburgh. In the talk, Vaira Vike-Freiberga put an emphasis on the nation’s key values: freedom, democracy and equality.

On 27 March, the discussion was held by the Embassy of Latvia and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In the conversation, with the presence of Sergei Guriev, EBRD Chief Economist, and Alexia Latortue, EBRD Managing Director for Corporate Strategy. Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga presented about the theme of “Women, Development and Democracy”. She explained the mechanisms of social stigmatization and their negative influence on the development of society.

On the next day, Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga delivered a lecture on “Values and Democracy in the Contemporary World” to students and professionals in the University of Edinburgh. Not only did Dr. Vīķe-Freiberga explained to her audience the place of the Latvian people in the context of the development of European civilisation and values, but also she noted the controversial debate on the application in Latvia of the Istanbul Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence). She strongly emphasized that liberal values did no run counter to family values. This event is considered one of the university’s most visited events in recent years.