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Somalia: Women fight for promised share of parliamentary seats

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Somalia: Women fight for promised share of parliamentary seats

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Women at the National Constituent Assembly hold up signs calling for their rights. Tribal elders failed to give women 30% of the seats as promised in previous Roadmap agreements. [Mahmoud Mohamed/Sabahi]

Photo credit: Mahmoud Mohamed/Sabahi

Somali women are fighting to get their promised 30% representation in the next parliament after they failed to reach the same quota in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), which approved the draft constitution on Wednesday (August 1st).

The Garowe Principles, signed by Somali leaders in December 2011 and bolstered in February, stated that 30% of seats in the NCA and the parliament would be reserved for women.

However, promises made by political leaders have yet to be implemented, as women were only given 25% of the seats in the NCA, according to Halima Ismail, a member of the Technical Selection Committee.

Somali women occupied 7% of seats in the Transitional Federal Government parliament, which will expire in August, even though the Transitional Federal Charter reserves 12% of parliamentary seats for women. Women's representation in the current cabinet is only about 5%.

 

Read the complete story at Sabahi, published 1 August 2012.

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Women at the National Constituent Assembly hold up signs calling for their rights. Tribal elders failed to give women 30% of the seats as promised in previous Roadmap agreements. [Mahmoud Mohamed/Sabahi]

Photo credit: Mahmoud Mohamed/Sabahi

Somali women are fighting to get their promised 30% representation in the next parliament after they failed to reach the same quota in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), which approved the draft constitution on Wednesday (August 1st).

The Garowe Principles, signed by Somali leaders in December 2011 and bolstered in February, stated that 30% of seats in the NCA and the parliament would be reserved for women.

However, promises made by political leaders have yet to be implemented, as women were only given 25% of the seats in the NCA, according to Halima Ismail, a member of the Technical Selection Committee.

Somali women occupied 7% of seats in the Transitional Federal Government parliament, which will expire in August, even though the Transitional Federal Charter reserves 12% of parliamentary seats for women. Women's representation in the current cabinet is only about 5%.

 

Read the complete story at Sabahi, published 1 August 2012.

News
Issues