Humbling experience to be first woman SG of the Commonwealth – Scotland

IT IS BOTH a humbling experience and a privilege to be the first woman to be appointed as the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Patricia Scotland, in a recent interview with SEARCHLIGHT said that it has been interesting for her to see the warm response that she has received since her appointment.

Scotland, a Dominican, assumed office on April 1, 2016 and she is the sixth Commonwealth Secretary General.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t necessarily think that it would cause as much pleasure to as many people as it seems to have, which is very humbling but I think what it has done is it’s enabled me to make sure that as we go forward and looking at these issues which are so important to all our Commonwealth in terms of the commitment we made to all our Commonwealth charter and our values, that we do that with a gender specific lens so that when we are looking to deliver, no one behind,” she said.

The Secretary General added that she was “very conscious that there has been a feeling that sometimes the female perspective is not always integrated or hasn’t been integrated historically in a way that everybody now thinks benefits all of us.”

And Scotland said that it has been a great privilege to hold her post, which has given her an opportunity to look at things that have held her interest for a long time, particularly violence against women and girls.

She made reference to the United Nation’s campaign to End Violence Against Women and said that there was “a lot of work for us to do” in the effort to eliminate violence against women.