Parliaments & Representatives
Young people are often excluded or overlooked as political candidates. Politics is typically regarded as a space for politically experienced men, and while women are often disadvantaged in accumulating experience to run for office, young people are systematically marginalized because of their young age, limited opportunities, and projected lack of experience. As the increased political participation of women benefits society as a whole, the presence of young people in decision-making positions benefits all citizens and not just youth. The Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) reports that people between the ages of 20 and 44 make up 57% of the world’s voting age population but only 26% of the world’s Members of Parliament (MPs). Young people under 30 represent 1.9% of the world’s MPs and more than 80% of the world’s upper houses of Parliament have no MPs aged under 30. While young people often play central and catalyzing roles in movements for democracy around the world, they are less engaged than older generations in voting and party activism. Together, these trends have inspired many international organizations to study the lack of youth political participation and train youth activists to become political leaders.
Recognizing the potential of youth, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) developed its first-ever Youth Strategy (2014–2017), called “Empowered Youth, Sustainable Future”, in line with the UN System-Wide Action Plan on Youth (2013) which calls on young generations to become more involved and more committed in development processes. 2013 also saw the publication of the “Enhancing Youth Political Participation throughout the Electoral Cycle: A Good Practice Guide“, UNDP’s first review of programming strategies for youth political participation beyond the ballot box. In 2016, to further boost the implementation of UNDP’s Youth Strategy and respond to both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 on youth, peace and security, UNDP launched a Youth Global Programme for Sustainable Development and Peace – Youth-GPS (2016–2020). The Youth-GPS focuses on civic engagement and political participation, among other areas, and responds to the concerns young people have expressed in global, regional and national forums and the growing demand at all levels for cutting-edge and strategic support in youth programming in all development contexts. In 2016, as a joint initiative of a number of partners including UNDP and IPU, the “Not Too Young To Run” global campaign was launched to elevate the promotion of young people’s right to run for public office and address the wide-spread issue of age discrimination.
In 2010, IPU adopted the resolution “Youth participation in the democratic process” at its 122nd Assembly and in 2013, established the Forum of Young Parliamentarians. Since then, IPU published two studies, one in 2014 and another in 2016, using a questionnaire to gather data from its Member Parliaments around the world on youth participation in national parliaments. Through these studies, IPU provides a number of recommendations for action which, if acted on, will ensure young people are fully engaged in politics. These include designing strategies by national parliaments and political parties that target the inclusion of young MPs and ensure diversity among youth, addressing the disparities between the number of young men and young women entering parliament. IPU also recommends to align the minimum age for parliamentary candidacies with the minimum voting age and to establish youth quotas (e.g. reserved seats, legislated quotas, party quotas) as a means of increasing the number of young MPs. In 2016 the IPU membership endorsed the document “Rejuvenating democracy, giving voice to youth”, based on the principles promoted by the young parliamentarians of the IPU: “No decisions about us without us”, that outlines how parliaments and parliamentarians could help rejuvenate democracy and give the world’s young people a voice in political decision-making.
In addition, UN Women established the Youth Forum at the CSW in March 2016, allowing global youth representatives to discuss the issues they face and to reflect on ways to help deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 5 on gender equality. UN Women also published CEDAW for Youth in 2016, a youth-friendly version of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) elaborated by young people. International IDEA published in 2016 a report entitled “Increasing youth participation throughout the electoral cycle: entry points for electoral management bodies” documenting the challenges and practices directed at youth inclusion in politics and within different electoral processes.
Objective of the e-Discussion
This e-Discussion seeks to bring the voices of the iKNOW Politics and UNDP4Youth communities into this growing debate on youth participation in politics. Please join the e-Discussion from 03 April to 08 May 2017. Students, young parliamentarians, political party and social movement activists, civil society representatives, youth movements and networks, government and international organizations representatives, and academia are invited to contribute with their experiences by answering to one or more of the below questions. The submissions will contribute to the elaboration of a Consolidated Reply that will augment the knowledge base available on the topic of youth political participation. We look to an informative knowledge-sharing exercise on this topic.
Questions
- How do you explain the low representation of young people in parliaments and governments around the world?
- What is an enabling environment for young people’s participation in politics, in particular young women?
- What can parliaments, governments, political parties, and civil society do to increase young women and men’s representation in politics? Do you have examples of good practices?
- What are some of the most innovative alternative methods (marches, sit-ins…) to formal political participation that young people choose to bring about change and be heard?
- How can we support more young people who would be interested in channelling their activism through formal political institutions?
- What strategies and approaches have been successful in recruiting young men and women in political parties?
- What can be done to support young MPs in their parliamentary career? Please share any initiatives you are aware of.
- How can young parliamentarians better address gender equality and women’s empowerment? Are youth more likely to be active in combatting discrimination and gender based violence?
- How can we best measure youth political participation and policy influence?
Please note that there are different options to send your contributions:
- Login with your iKNOW Politics member credentials. If you are not a member yet, please sign up using the profile icon on the top right of this page. Please check your email to confirm registration. Once a member, you will be able to use the comment section.
- Use the below comment section by signing in with one of your social media accounts.
- Send your contributions to connect@iknowpolitics.org
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Recently, elected women from France, Canada, Scotland and Israel, to name a few examples, publicly condemned misogynist and violent political cultures. Not only did they expose acts of harassment and violence in politics, they made the case that violence should not be the price of participating in politics. Violence against women in politics (VAWP) limits women’s political opportunities and discourages or prevents them from exercising their political rights, including their rights as voters, candidates, party supporters or public officials. |
VAWP can occur during electoral campaigns, but not only: as women assume various political positions, they may, for example, be pressured to resign from their posts on the basis of gender, or verbally threatened or intimidated because they are women in politics; and VAWP may take many other forms, including in sexist stereotypes and images portrayed in the media, which, particularly in the digital age, focus on women’s bodies, sexuality and traditional social roles, rather than their competence, capacity and contributions as leaders. |
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Please click here to read the full concept note of this e-Discussion. Click here to access the consolidated reply. This e-Discussion seeks to bring the experiences of the iKNOW Politics community into this growing dialogue on VAWP. Please join us in the e-Discussion from 22 August to 16 October 2016. Questions
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Worldwide, several challenges to the full realization of women's rights persist, and women continue face discrimination in access to education, work, social protection, inheritance, economic assets, productive resources and participation in decision-making and society at large. Gender discrimination is defined as "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment |
or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field." (The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly). Please click here to read the full concept note of this e-Discussion. Please click here to access the consolidated reply of this e-Discussion.
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The e-Discussion will take place from 16 May to 12 June 2016. QUESTIONS Addressing gaps: enactment vs. enforcement
Measures, mechanisms and institutions
Collective action
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Parliaments are key stakeholders in the promotion and achievement of gender equality. Parliamentary oversight processes provide and opportunity to ensure that governments maintain commitments to gender equality. While women parliamentarians have often assumed responsibility for this oversight, many parliaments are taking a more holistic approach by establishing dedicated mechanisms and systematic processes across all policy areas to mainstream the advancement of gender equality. The oversight role of parliamentarians is linked to the very notion of external accountability, the democratic control of the government by the parliament, among other bodies. Since gender equality improves the quality of democracy, the parliamentary oversight of gender equality is a key aspect of modern parliaments and a fundamental contribution for the achievement of sustained democratic practices. Against this backdrop and to contribute to the forthcoming second Global Parliamentary Report on Parliament's power to hold government to account: Realities and perspectives on oversight - a joint publication of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - iKNOW Politics is moderating an e-Discussion on 'Parliamentary Oversight of Gender Equality'. The e-Discussion runs from 25 January - 28 February 2016 and seeks to highlight the willingness and capacity of parliaments to keep governments accountable |
on the goal of gender equality and ensure parliamentary oversight is gender-sensitive, as well as the opportunities available to both women and men parliamentarians to engage in oversight. One of the main objectives of this e-Discussion, thus, is to find best practices that will help to strengthen external accountability and the consolidation of sustained democratic practices. The conclusions of this e-Discussion will be incorporated into the global report. More information on the report is available at www.ipu.org/gpr2. iKNOW Politics members (politicians, experts, academics, CSOs, and think tanks) are encouraged to respond with concrete examples, experiences and recommendations to the questions outlined below. Please follow the following steps to send your comment(s): Please fell free to respond to as many, or few, questions as you like. There is no requirement to provide responses to all the questions. Please participate by emailing iknowpolitics@unwomen.org or by posting your comments online in the iKNOW Politics forum below. Please click here to read the full concept note of this e-Discussion. Access the Consolidated Reply here and the full report following this link. |
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QUESTIONS 1. PARLIAMENT MECHANISMS FOR OVERSIGHT -Has parliament created mechanisms to oversee the government’s gender equality commitments? How effective have they been? What are the reasons for their successes and shortcomings, and what could be improved? -To what extent does parliament scrutinize the budget from a gender perspective? Are parliamentarians able to hold government to account for the extent to which expenditure has produced results for women and men? -To what extent does parliament engage with the national reporting process on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women? Does parliament monitor the executive’s response to recommendations by the CEDAW Committee? -Is it possible to identify specific outcomes of parliamentary oversight of gender equality? Where a particular result has been achieved, what produced these outcomes? 2. MONITORING OF GENDER EQUALITY -To what extent does parliament monitor the impact of gender equality / non-discrimination legislation after it has been adopted? Do you have concrete examples how this has been done? What is the role of parliament when legislation is not put into practice, or does not have the intended effects? 3. mEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT EXPERIENCIES IN OVERSIGHT ACTIVITIES -What can be done to build political will for women and men parliamentarians to engage equally in oversight of gender equality issues? -Where caucuses of women parliamentarians exist, have they provided effective in building cross-party support for work on gender equality? To what extent have they been able to engage with government and hold it to account? -How extensively does parliament engage women’s groups outside parliament to support monitoring progress and setbacks with regard to gender equality? What the opportunities to strengthen these partnerships? -To what extent are parliamentarians supported in undertaking gender-sensitive oversight training, staff, and budgets?
Please note that there are different options to send your contributions: 1. Login with your iKNOW Politics member credentials. If you are not a member yet, please sign up using the profile icon on the top right of this page. Please check your email to confirm registration. Once a member, you will be able to use the comment section. Comments will wait for the approval of the iKNOW Politics Team. 2. Use the below comment section by signing in with one of your social media accounts. 3. Send your contributions to iknowpolitics@unwomen.org |
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"Whenever I am asked what the missing link is between a promising businessperson and a successful one, mentoring comes to mind; if you are looking to make your way in business, try to find a mentor. If you are in a position to share the skills you have learned, give something back by becoming a mentor yourself.” CEO VIRGIN
In the private sector, mentorship programs have been proven successful in creating a new generation of leaders. The public sector learnt from these successes and copied them by organizing its own mentorship programs. Consequently, some parliaments followed suit by providing mentorship programs for incoming MPs or programs that allow people to shadow an MP in their daily functions to better understand the work of the Parliament and of that particular MP and their constituency, such as in the UK.
Given the complexity of a Parliament, candidates and first time Parliamentarians are keen to get advice from those who have previous experience with particular issues. Mentorship programs have been organized at national and regional levels. At the national level, Parliaments are exploring new ways of guiding young MPs through the complex structures of Parliament. At the regional level, Parliaments are providing mentorship projects, which go beyond the traditional study trip tours, through online networks and intensive collaboration between parliamentarians.
Q1: Have you ever been part of a mentorship program (as mentor or mentee)? If so, could you share your experiences?
Q2: Do you know of successful mentorship projects targeting women candidates and parliamentarians. Why were these projects successful?
Q3: Are ‘in-person’ meetings critical for a successful mentorship programme or could online mentoring be just as useful?
Women’s political and socio-economic status improves when women become more involved in decision making and policy development at all levels of governance. Through their active involvement in community work and women’s movements, local women politicians are fully aware of issues faced by women in their communities and are uniquely positioned to address them. The role of women in decision making has been addressed by various international agreements and conventions, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), to name a few.
In 2009, iKNOW Politics organized an e-discussion on women in local governance. During this e-discussion participants agreed that including women in local governments is a key factor in creating gender sensitive policies and services. Participants believed that women politicians can be active advocates of women’s issues among their colleagues in the local government and vital for mainstreaming gender perspectives in policies, but nevertheless expressed the need for further research to document this.
In this discussion, iKNOW Politics is seeking more encouraging examples from all over the world, highlighting the impact women leaders have in changing the way business is conducted in local governance such as in district, provincial and regional assemblies and local (rural and urban) councils.
- What is the percentage of women in local assemblies and councils? Are there any cultural or institutional barriers for women to become politically active in your community?
- Is there a correlation between women’s political participation at the local and national level? Do you know women national leaders who started their career in local governance? Are there any specific programmes or structures in place supporting local elected women to become leaders at the national level?
- Has your local government undertaken any gender analysis as part of comprehensive policy, programmes and service planning and delivery?
- Does having more women in local governments lead to the creation of more gender sensitive programmes and legislation as well as empowering other women in local communities?
As part of the IPU series 'A conversation with...', we interview parliamentarians from all over the world to find out who they represent and what motivates them.
In this edition, we discover Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka, a Senator from Poland and a member of the IPU's Executive Committee.
Click here to listen the full conversation published by the IPU on 25 April 2024.
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Lucia Witbooi is a Namibian politician and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security. A member of SWAPO, Witbooi was elected to the Namibia's National Assembly in the 2009 general election.
Interview conducted by iKNOW Politics during the 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda, in October 2022.
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In this on-the-record briefing, Professor O’Brien discusses gender and politics. She also speaks about the impact of electing more women, the importance of women’s representation in the political and economic decision-making process, if the number of women running for office globally are increasing or decreasing, and gender differences in voter turnout.
Diana O’Brien is the Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Her teaching focuses on the causes and consequences of women’s political representation across the globe. Her areas of study are gender and political parties, legislative politics, executive branch politics, and citizens responses to women’s presence in politics.
MODERATOR: Hello and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center’s virtual briefing on Women in Politics. My name is Doris Robinson and I am the briefing moderator. Our briefer today is Diana O’Brien; she is the Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research and teaching focus on the – focuses on the causes and consequences of women’s political representation in high-income democracies, including Western Europe and the United States, as well as across the globe. Her areas of study are gender and political parties, legislative and executive branch politics, as well as citizen responses to women’s presence in politics.
And now for the ground rules. This briefing is on the record. We will post the transcript and a video of the briefing later today on our website at fpc.state.gov. And a quick reminder, please make sure that your Zoom profile has your name and media outlet that you represent. And finally, before Professor O’Brien makes opening remarks, just a quick reminder that she is an independent subject matter expert and the views expressed by briefers not affiliated with the Department of State are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government. Their participation in FPC programming does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation of their views.
And with that, I will now invite Professor O’Brien to provide opening remarks. Over to you.
Read here the full briefing published by the USA Department of State on 16 April 2024.
Image by USA Department of State
As part of Strathclyde Women's Week 2024, we are focusing on the work of Humanities & Social Sciences academics whose research relates particularly to the experiences of women and girls.
Dr Stefanie Reher is a Reader in Politics at the University of Strathclyde, working within the Department of Government & Public Policy. Dr Reher's research focuses on political representation, behaviour, and attitudes.
She is currently working on several projects about the representation of disabled people in politics. Last year - in collaboration with Prof. Elizabeth Evans of the University of Southampton - she published Gender, disability and political representation: understanding the experiences of disabled women in the European Journal of Politics and Gender.
We asked Dr Reher about the barriers disabled women face to participation in representative politics, the methods behind the research and what needs to be done to improve inclusion.
Click here to read the full article published by the University of Strathclyde on 20 March 2024.
Image source: University of Strathclyde
Female politicians have asked their male counterparts to desist from the habit of sexually harassing them, saying the vice is rampant in Uganda’s political corridors.
Speaking during a dialogue organized by the Netherlands Institute for Multi-party Democracy on Thursday (December 7, 2023), female politicians led by former Kumi Woman MP Monica Amoding and Edith Sempala, Uganda’s former Ambassador to the US, said they suffer sexual harassment from male voters, colleagues, technocrats and bosses. We have a report.
Click here to read the full article published by The New Vision on 11 December 2023.
Image by The New Vision
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Saratsanun Unnopporn serves as a Parliament member in Thailand.
Interview conducted by iKNOW Politics during the 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Assembly in Kigali, Rwanda, in October 2022.
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The deliberate spread of harmful and false content aimed at women is a current threat to their safety, job performance, mental health, as well as to the institutions they represent, weakening not only women’s active life in the public but also the democratic system.
Our research indicates that there is a need for codes of conduct in various areas of government: considering the multiple elections happening in the Latin America Region, a window of opportunity has been identified to develop and implement mechanisms to safeguard women in Parliament.
The implementation of Codes of Conduct in Parliaments creates a better decision-making process, significantly reducing possible aggressions between peers. In politics the existence of a code of conduct can place the issue of online gender violence on the agenda, making visible and enabling effective action against.
This research focuses on the experience of Latin American countries to outline recommendations for possible actions and best practices to help prevent digital political violence against women in Parliaments. A comprehensive desk review was carried out on countries with existing legislation in the Region reviewing the existence of protocols, legislative work, draft bills and bills, and analyzing current European Codes of Conducts to compare. Understanding and addressing this phenomenon is essential to ensuring gender equality in politics and promoting a violence-free parliamentary environment for all individuals.
In addition, the methodology implemented reveals significant barriers to recognizing political aggressions as a form of violence, despite the prevalent use of the term "violence" in the outcome of the research. This underscores the urgent need for a clear typification of online gender-based violence against women parliamentarians. Additionally, there is notable skepticism regarding the effectiveness of existing codes and regulations in safeguarding women from such violence. Our analysis shows diverse narratives explaining the roots of political violence and discrimination against women in public life. Emphasizing the connection between these findings is imperative to address these gaps through the development of robust codes.
Read here the full report published by Fundación Multitudes on August 2024.
This online resource will guide you in implementing the OECD Recommendation on Gender Equality in Public Life. In addition to better familiarising you with the Principles, the Toolkit lets you compare indicators and good practices in use in numerous countries. The self-assessment tools will help governments assess the strengths and weaknesses of their gender policies, which in turn, will help policy makers set priorities for improvement.
Source: OECD
This action kit is a practical tool for unpacking gender responsive budgeting (GRB) and engaging parliaments and parliamentarians in strengthening scrutiny and oversight of gender responsive budget formulation, execution, and evaluation. As a result of their interventions, the budget process can be more participatory, inclusive, and effective.
This publication is directed primarily to actors who want to build an effective system for integrating GRB into the annual state budget process. This includes Members of Parliament (MPs), parliamentary staff and committees, caucuses of women MPs, as well as other actors, including UN Women or other United Nations entities who may want to initiate and support a stronger role for parliament and MPs in GRB.
The action kit is divided into sections:
- Building government systems to support GRB through the budget cycle;
- Parliament’s role in engaging with GRB in the budget process; and
- Programmatic interventions to support parliaments in the GRB process.
To ensure the guidance and information provided in the publication are grounded in practice, country examples of GRB implementation and entry points for parliamentary engagement are included.
Click here to access the publication.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) today published a “Participatory Gender Audits of Parliaments, a Step-by-Step Guidance Document,” which offers comprehensive tools and detailed steps on how parliaments can fully capitalize on their potential to implement a gender-sensitive and intersectional approach to legislative processes.
The PA and ODIHR collaborated on the publication, which sets out how to implement participatory gender audits through a clear framework and step-by-step process. The Guide recognizes that each parliament is unique and will undertake the audit in unique circumstances and it allows parliaments to choose the scope of the audit, the format and the timescale within which it will be conducted. As such, it adds to the extensive OSCE acquis in support of all parliaments of the region and it is in line with institutions’ respective mandates to advocate for ensuring transparency and accountability of all parliamentary procedures, practices, and standards, including those aimed at gender mainstreaming and conducting gender audits or assessments.
The “Participatory Gender Audits of Parliaments, a Step-by-Step Guidance Document” complements the “Realizing Gender Equality in Parliament: A Guide for Parliaments in the OSCE Region,” published in December 2021, which brought together lessons learned and good practices from 46 national parliaments in North America, Europe and Central Asia on introducing and improving gender sensitivity in parliaments, on which the two Institutions have also closely co-operated.
Click here to access the report.
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s Gender Sensitising Parliamentary Guidelines: A Seven-Step Field Guide (‘Field Guide’) provides a blueprint for Commonwealth parliaments interested in undertaking a Gender Sensitive Parliament (GSP) review of their institutions with the objective of making their parliaments more representative and inclusive. The Field Guide builds on earlier Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian’s (CWP) gender sensitising reports, in which a GSP is defined as a place that responds to the needs and interests of women in its structures, operations, methods, and work and is a workplace that removes barriers to women’s full participation.
GSP reviews have the potential to respond to the needs of parliamentary members and staff who identify as women or as belonging to another marginalised group, and in some Commonwealth contexts, this includes people with intersecting identities, such as Indigenous People, Black People, and People of Colour, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer+ People (LGBTQ+), and people living with disabilities.
Click here to access the guide.
This course, written by Dr Sonia Palmieri, explores why and how to build gender sensitive parliaments. Rich in case studies, it sketches the international framework for action and outlines opportunities for shaping contextually-appropriate parliamentary processes and norms.
Click here to access the course.
Parliaments have a key role in ensuring not only that everyone is properly represented in decision-making, but also that legislation and government actions take account of the needs and experiences of women and men on an equal basis. However, the achievement of gender equality requires more than commitments and good intentions. It is reliant on action.
This Guide is designed to help parliamentarians, officials, civil society and democracy-support organizations undertake gender-sensitive scrutiny. It provides a model for gender-sensitive scrutiny and demonstrates how the techniques can be used when carrying out pre- and post-legislative scrutiny, conducting oversight and monitoring budgets. It also provides case studies and resources.
Click here to access the guide.
This guide is designed to help Members and staff of the Parliament of Malaysia undertake gender-sensitive scrutiny of laws, budgets, and policies.
Click here to download the guide published by INTER PARES.
This guide is designed to help Members and staff of the Parliament of Bhutan undertake gender-sensitive scrutiny of laws, budgets, and policies.
Click here to download the guide published by INTER PARES.
This practical guide is intended to support the full range of parliamentary actors — from parliamentary leadership teams, members of parliament, and political and parliamentary staff, to parliamentary practitioners and civil society organizations dealing with gender equality issues — in transforming these institutions into gender-sensitive parliaments.
Click here to access the guide.