Marijke Weewauters, Senior advisor on national relations and strategic policy advisor

Marijke Weewauters is a federal civil servant and gender expert on equal opportunities policy for 30 years. She is the national strategy advisor and liaison officer of the Institute for the Equality for Women and Men (the Institute). In this context, she has several functions: among others, she is a member of the several interdepartmental working groups on gender and gender-based violence. She is also a member of the Interministerial Conference on Women’s Rights. She represents Belgium in various international and European institutions such as the EIGE expert forum, Equinet and COPA, the Council of Europe’s policy monitoring body on the Istanbul Convention.

As liaison officer, she maintains close relations with civil society. In the elaboration and monitoring of the (policy) actions of the Institute, both as an administration and as an independent institution, cooperation’s are set up with civil society. Marijke Weewauters plays a crucial role in this.

Marijke Weewauters was Belgian negotiator for the session of the International Labour Conference on ILO Convention 190 and several times Belgian representative in the CSW session and CEDAW hearings.

Recently, she is appointed a member of the Commission on Financial Assistance to Victims of Intentional Acts of Violence.

The Institute for the equality of women and men was created in December 2002 as the autonomous federal public institution responsible for guaranteeing and promoting gender equality and to combat any form of gender-based discrimination and inequality