Parliaments & Representatives

As usual, Congress gathers around this time of year to try to extract some electoral advantage from International Women’s Day. Close to March 8, lawmakers typically hold a joint effort to approve measures aimed at female voters—initiatives that, on their merits, few would oppose. They include important proposals to combat violence and femicide and to promote health programs specifically focused on women. But it is necessary to scratch beneath the surface.

In Comoros, gender equality and women’s rights are upheld by the Constitution and the  2017 National Policy on Gender Equality and Equity. Gender issues are also addressed in the  country’s development roadmap, Comoros Emerging Plan 2030, which promotes the empowerment of women and girls across all sectors (Madjid, 2023). 

However, gender inequality is a pressing concern in the country. Comorian women have  notably lower literacy rates than men (67% compared to 73%). They are less likely than men  to attain post-secondary education and more likely to have no formal schooling (Union of  the Comoros, 2022). 

Women’s economic participation is significantly lower, with just 39% of working-age  Comorian women actively engaged in the labour force, compared to 58% of men (Union of  the Comoros, 2023). This disparity heightens their vulnerability to abuse. Among 78 reported  cases of economic violence from April to June 2025, 64% involved women (United Nations  Children’s Fund, 2025a). 

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HAVANA TIMES – Women’s political participation in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased over the last 25 years, especially in the legislative branch, but this rise has been accompanied by more discrimination and violence, amplified and accelerated by cyberspaces.

A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) notes that, despite the progress, the region “is still far from achieving gender parity,” since, “as female participation grew, so did the challenges women face.”

“Among the persistent barriers, digital political violence has become an increasingly significant obstacle,” the report states.

In its most recent Graph For Thought, the regional UNDP emphasizes that in 2024, the Latin American and Caribbean region registered the highest proportion worldwide of Congressional seats held by women, with 36.5% of the total seats.

That statistic places them above the 33.3% overall Congressional participation of women in the OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), which are mostly industrialized nations, as well as the global average of 27%.

That same year, the proportion of women magistrates in supreme courts was five times higher than in 1998, rising from 5.5% to 28.2%. Representation in national Parliaments and municipal councils also doubled during that period.

Meanwhile, the percentage of women holding Cabinet-level positions increased from 17.1% to 30.4%. Some local spaces showed greater resistance to change, however: in 2024, only 15.9% of mayors in the region were women, making this the area with the lowest female representation.

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From Bolivia to Kyrgyzstan, some countries are proving that, with the right rules and political will, real progress towards gender parity in parliaments is within reach.

Slow progress, but with snapshots of inspiration: that’s the picture to emerge from the IPU’s recently published annual Women in parliament in 2025 report. Based on data from the 49 countries that held parliamentary renewals for 62 chambers last year, it is the definitive barometer of women’s representation in parliament.

Overall, the report paints a worrying picture of the world’s progress towards the goal of gender parity in politics. Women hold 27.5% of national parliamentary seats worldwide after a mere 0.3 percentage point rise from 2024’s rate. The proportion of women Speakers of Parliament, meanwhile, has dipped by almost 4 percentage points on the previous year.

Yet, despite sluggish progress at the global level, countries across all seven continents continue to make strides. They set valuable examples that we hope to see emulated by others in the coming years.

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Violence against politicians is a part of politics, but experimental studies find that its effect on citizens is muted. Rozemarijn van Dijk and Joep van Lit argue those null results are nevertheless meaningful: they should push scholars to study the conditions under which political violence results in (de)mobilisation

Violence against politicians is, regrettably, a part of political life. Politicians are harassed and intimidated on social media, campaign materials are vandalised, and many politicians work under constant security protection. Sometimes this climate of hostility escalates into direct physical attacks on politicians. At its extreme, political violence is fatal. Substantial evidence shows that such experiences change how politicians behave. Experiences of violence influence the ways politicians interact with constituents, what issues they are willing to speak about publicly, and whether they choose to remain in political life.

As such, political violence (which we define as violent acts by individuals, not international violence or terrorism) is directly threatening democracy. The perpetrators intend it not only to silence its immediate targets but also to send a signal to bystanders (‘normal citizens’): stay in line, stay quiet, stay out of politics. This is the demobilising effect of political violence, inducing fear and self-censorship. Conversely, if political violence provokes outrage rather than fear, we might expect it to have a mobilising effect.

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