Parliaments & Representatives
The UN envoy to Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, met with a delegation from the “High National Council for Libyan Women,” as part of the consultations he is conducting with a number of components of Libyan society, in addition to what he described as his quest to bridge the gap between political rivals in order to reach a political solution.
“As part of my ongoing consultations with a wide range of Libyan constituencies, and in parallel with my efforts to bring the major political stakeholders together, I met today with members of the High National Council for Libyan Women, led by Mrs. Laila Sawesi,” Bathily tweeted on Wednesday.
“The participants deplored the lack of women’s representation at all levels and called for meaningful political participation. They also welcomed my call for a dialogue between the main actors and promised to share a written contribution on the way to end the political stalemate,” he added.
Click here to read the full article published by The Libya Update on 7 December 2023.
Image by The Libya Update
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What is the Women's Reservation Act, 2023?
About:
¨The Constitution (106th Amendment) Act, 2023, reserves one-third of all seats for women in Lok Sabha, State legislative assemblies, and the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, including those reserved for SCs and STs.
¨The reservation will be effective after the publication of the census conducted following the Act’s commencement and endures for a 15-year period, with potential extension determined by parliamentary action.
¨The rotation of seats allocated for women will be governed by parliamentary legislation after each delimitation process.
Currently, around 15% of the total members of the 17th Lok Sabha (2019-2024) are women while in state legislative assemblies, women on average constitute 9% of the total members.
Click here to read the full article published by Drishti IAS English on 6 December 2023.
Image by Drishti IAS English
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The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has prompted many experts to warn about its impacts on democracy. To explore this issue further, the IPU is preparing a series of articles on the topic. In this fourth piece, British MP and Vice-Chair of the British Group of the IPU, Vicky Ford, talks about violence against women in politics (VAWIP), as well as the risks and opportunities of AI.
With the United Kingdom likely heading for an election in 2024, British MP Vicky Ford worries that the accelerating levels of online violence will discourage even more women from entering political life, distorting gender equality and democracy alike.
Online threats of death, rape and beatings have become a regular occurrence for MPs, especially women, all around the world, and this online aggression can have a real world impact too, says Ms. Ford. Within the last eight years, for example, two British politicians – Jo Cox and David Amess – have been murdered, and others have been lucky to escape with their lives.
Many now worry that AI will accelerate such trends.
Click here to read the full article published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on 30 November 2023.
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One of the first few countries to introduce suffrage for women and their election to office, Türkiye marks the 89th anniversary of the constitutional amendment, with more women in political offices though they are still outnumbered by men.
Nakiye Elgün’s message was simple: “We are a whole.” One of the first female lawmakers of the Turkish Parliament, Elgün noted in her speech in 1935 that men and women worked together in many fields but they were “honored” to be part of Parliament.
On Tuesday, Türkiye marks the 89th anniversary of a constitutional amendment that paved the way for women to exercise voting rights and to be elected into political offices, from municipal councils to Parliament. Elgün was among 17 female lawmakers elected into Parliament in 1935, one year after women were granted suffrage and about 11 years after the Republic of Türkiye was founded.
Click here to read the full article published by the Daily Sabah on 4 December 2023.
Image by Daily Sabah
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Udora Orizu chronicles the noteworthy strides being made by the 10th House of Representatives towards improving women’s political representation and end gender based violence in the country.
The 10th House of Representatives, is rekindling hopes of Nigerian women following assurances of legislative reforms to improve women’s political representation, one of which is to revisit the five gender bills rejected during the alteration of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), in March, 2022.
These assurances, without doubt, are worthy of note, as it shows the lawmakers commitment towards ensuring that women’s rights are protected.
The rejection of the gender Bills during amendment of the constitution by the lawmakers sparked outrage and protests by women and fundamental rights groups.
Click here to read the full article published by This Day Live on 1 December 2023.
Image by This Daily Live
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For a country with a significant female population, Nigeria has been poor in ensuring gender parity in elected and appointed leadership positions. Since 1979, the country has practiced a presidential form of government, with a devolved form of government across three tiers—federal, state and local levels. Yet, despite the number of elective constituencies available, there has been little to no women elected to these positions. Nigeria has never elected a female president, vice-president or a governor in any of its thirty-six states. Women elected to the national legislature have been a scant percentage in any of the ten constituted sessions of either chamber, with none emerging as president of the senate and a roughly five-month stint for the only woman to emerge speaker of the house of representatives (Polgreen, 2007).
Click here to read the full report published by the Centre for Democracy and Development on 27 November 2023.
Image by Centre for Democracy and Development
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Pakistan’s constitution makes no distinction between genders but women in parliament know that’s not the reality in politics. Despite impressive records of women in the legislative assembly, female parliamentarians still face barriers to entry that their male colleagues don’t - keeping many women, save for a few with family members in politics, out of these positions.
The current makeup of Pakistan’s parliament is only 21 percent female. In the National Assembly, which consists of 342 members, female representation is only around 3 percent if reserved seats are excluded; There are 60 seats reserved for women. These numbers are emblematic of a male-dominated political culture which - along with other socio-economic factors - creates a glass ceiling for women’s political advancement.
Click here to read the full article published by the Tribune Magazine on 6 February 2022.
How do quotas for women in Sri Lanka’s local government institutions affect key governance indicators such as perceived fairness, institutional trust, and perceived performance? These dimensions of governance are underexplored in the context of gender quota policies in patriarchal societies like that of Sri Lanka. The study hypothetically varied the quota provision for women (decrease to 10%, increase to 45%, or keep at the current 25%) in local government, and then tried to understand people’s opinions about the three governance indicators. When examining the results of the experiment (around 1,200 samples), it was found that perceived fairness, institutional trust, and perceived performance increased along with the greater quota provision. Possible mechanisms for the increases in institutional trust and perceived performance may be associated with the signal of fairness generated by the increase of quota provision for women.
Click here to download the report.
This working paper presents data and analysis on women’s representation in local government by UN Women as the sole custodian agency for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 5.5.1b. It provides a comprehensive overview of women’s political participation at the local level for the first time, helping to shift the global narrative from national to local decision-making power, a less known but critical level of governance.
Data available for 133 countries and areas indicate that women’s representation in deliberative bodies of local government is higher than in parliament, but still not on equal terms with men. The paper also analyses the use of legislated gender quotas and types of electoral systems in local elections as factors impacting women’s political participation.
Remaining data gaps on women’s political participation at local level, including data disaggregation issues, underused electoral data, and the need for new data collection tools to capture women’s full and effective participation in local government are also discussed.
Click here to access the report.
Representing more than 447 million people across 27 countries, the European Parliament should be the poster child for the European Union’s “united in diversity” motto. However, the representation of women in the parliament and its key positions remains weak and change is slow. While the parliament has seen a steady increase in the proportion of female members (MEPs) over the years, from 16% in 1979 to 39.5% in 2021, this is far from the whole picture when it comes to women’s representation.
Click here to download the paper.
By Anoa Changa
For Rep. Barbara Lee, part of Chisholm's legacy is how she inspired and empowered other Black women to reach higher.
Fifty years since Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announced her run for president, she remains a shining example for Black women in politics and beyond. More than simply a campaign slogan, “unbought and unbossed” has become a mantra for Black women in politics and their daily lives.
Click here to read the full article.
The 13th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament (13SWSP) was held on 6 September 2021 in Vienna (Austria) on the theme Women at the centre: From confronting the pandemic to preserving achievements in gender-responsive recovery. Over 26 of the world’s leading women legislators took part in the Summit which was organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in partnership with the Parliament of Austria and the United Nations.
Click here to read the report.