Parliaments & Representatives
Tamar Chugoshvili is the First Vice-Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia and Chair of the Gender Equality Council of Georgia.
This interview was conducted on 12 March 2018 in New York during CSW.
Monica Mutsvangwa is a Senator in Zimbabwe and Chair of the Women's Parliamentary Caucus.
YEREVAN -- An Armenian opposition municipal legislator was attacked in a brawl that erupted at a city council meeting in the capital, Yerevan, as she attempted to give the mayor a container showing how dirty the water in the capital is.
Marina Khachatrian, a member of the Yerkir Tsirani party, was hit several times by members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia on February 13 as she tried to give Mayor Taron Margarian a sample of sewage water from the Nubarashen district of the capital.
Police were eventually called in to restore order after several members of the city council scuffled.
In a brief interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Khachatrian accused the mayor of “using violence against me.”
Click here to read the full article published by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty on 13 February 2018.
The current French parliament has the most women it has ever had: 224 women were elected in June, out of 577 seats. This is mostly due to president Emmanuel Macron, who pushed for more women to run for office. But the rest of the French political landscape remains resolutely male, despite parity laws. RFI’s Sarah Elzas attended a yearly conference for female politicians to find out what is holding women back.
Click here to listen to her report aired on RFI English on 27 November 2017.
Nearly 40 percent of Colorado lawmakers are women, and the state has a history of women in powerful jobs. Reporter Bente Birkeland of the radio station KUNC asked about sexual harassment in the Colorado statehouse — and found a problem.
Click here to listen to her findings presented on NPR on 19 December 2017.
Tuesday’s election of an unprecedented number of women, gender non-conforming and minority candidates was a powerful renunciation of the ugly rhetoric of Donald Trump’s campaign and misbegotten critiques of “identity politics.” Exactly one year after Donald Trump’s election, voters demonstrated support for a powerful coalition that represents the Democratic party’s greatest strength and potential.
These victories were the result of hard work and perseverance, but they were also the result of bravery. Many of the people who won this week, transgender candidates, ethnic minority candidates and women who no prior electoral experience, belong to marginalized groups that are routinely targeted, online and off, with hostility and hatred. In 2016, an Inter-Parliamentary Union study of women in legislatures around the world found that:
- 41.8 percent report wide distribution of “extremely humiliating or sexually charged images;
- 44.4 percent receive death, rape, beating and abduction threats; and
- 32.7 percent harassed through exposure to persistent unwanted and intimidating messages.
Almost two-thirds of the women, 61.5 percent, believe that the primary objective of the harassment they face is to intimidate women and dissuade them from pursuing political leadership position.
Women’s harassment, whether they are in politics or not, tends to be more sustained and sexualized, often including the pornification of women as a political weapon. It also often includes explicit threats against their families and children. Studies show that online harassment is more emotionally resonant for women who, offline, have to be more vigilant about their safety.
Click here to read the full article published by The Huffington Post on 9 November 2017.
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.
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National Intergenerational Dialogue on Advancing Youth Participation and Representation in Leadership and Decision-Making
The main purpose of the National Intergenerational Dialogue is to promote intergenerational interactions/exchanges to bridge generational divides and to address the causes of…
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