Parliaments & Representatives
Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir is Chair of the Executive Board of the Women in Parliaments Global Forum. She is the former Minister of Interior of Iceland, the first Member of Parliament for the Reykjavík South constituency in Iceland, as well as a previous Mayor of Reykjavík. In 2016, Iceland topped the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index for the eighth year in a row.
Click here to read Womanthology’s interview with Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir.
Mmamoloko Kubayi is a Member of the South African National Assembly and holds the position of Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Telecommunications and Postal Services. This interview was conducted during the 135th IPU Assembly in Geneva.
Child, early and forced marriage is not well understood in the Americas region, although UNICEF estimates that 29% of girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, or almost 1 in 3 girls, are married before the age of 18. Some countries surpass that figure at the national level (the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Brazil, Honduras and Guatemala), while others face the issue only within certain ethnic groups. One of the main problems in the Americas is the number of informal or “de facto” unions which may not be classified as marriage, with the result that the extent of child, early and forced marriage in the region is probably underestimated. On the other hand, the issue of child, adolescent and forced motherhood has received growing attention in recent years due to an increase in the number of girls younger than 15 that are giving birth. UNFPA projects that these births will continue to rise through 2030, and the data on girls who give birth does not include those that undergo risky and often fatal unsafe abortions. A plethora of issues underlie the prevalence of child, early and forced marriage and motherhood in the Americas, including gender inequality, the concentration of women among the poorest segment of the population, continuing disparities between boys and girls in the minimum age for marriage, gender-based and sexual violence, including incest, restrictive abortion laws and a lack of access to contraception and sexual and reproductive health information and services The objectives of this international event, which is organized by the Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American States, are to: 1. Review what we know about child, early and forced marriage and motherhood in the Americas and identify those information and data gaps that still need to be filled; and 2. Formulate preliminary legislative, policy and program recommendations, on the basis of existing good practices and lessons learned, in order to begin a joint, comprehensive and effective response. During the event, the CIM will also launch its new “Hemispheric Report on Sexual Violence and Child Pregnancy in the States Party to the Belém do Pará Convention.
As part of its ongoing effort to empower Jordanian women to more effectively engage in the political process, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) launched a program on “Enhancing Women’s Participation in Elections.” The program targeted women leaders from all 12 governorates and the Bedouin districts who expressed an interest in running in the parliament elections, held in September 2016. Lern more about the program “Enhancing Women’s Participation in Elections.”
Hon. Alexia Manombe-Ncube talked to iKNOW Politics about the challenges and opportunities that women and physically impaired people find in politics.
Once A Somali Refugee, Fadumo Dayib is Now Running As Somalia's First Female President. Click here to access the original interview.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Fadumo Dayib is trying to do something no one has ever done before. Despite overwhelming odds, she is vying to become Somalia's first female president. Those long odds have a lot to do with her own story. She has been a refugee for most of her life. Despite not learning how to read until she was 14 years old, she now has a master's degree from Harvard in public administration and is working on a Ph.D. But in a country with a dismal human rights record and a long history of oppression against women, running for the highest public office in the land comes with risks. Fadumo Dayib joins me now. Welcome to the program.
FADUMO DAYIB: Thank you very much, Rachel.
MARTIN: Why do you want to do this?
DAYIB: Because I see what I'm doing as a moral obligation and a civic duty towards my country. I've watched for almost 26 years, hoping for a competent leadership to come that can bring us all back. There's 1.5 million Somalis in the diaspora, 1.2 million internally displaced inside the country. And they're all yearning to have a dignified existence to go back.
MARTIN: What is life like - if you are a child in Somalia right now, what does your future hold? What is day to day life like?
DAYIB: It's very bleak. If I speak about a child in Somalia who wakes up and might be in an internally displaced camp, this is a child who sees violence because majority of the women and children also get raped. They, you know, experience attacks by al-Shabab. And of the 12 million Somalis that I spoke about, 75 percent are under the age of 30. Of that, 68 percent are unemployed. That's why they end up either joining piracy or joining al-Shabab, or going on to migrate and dying on their way to the West.
MARTIN: You are currently living in Finland. You went there with your siblings when you were just a teenager. Can you retrace that journey for me? Why Finland?
DAYIB: I was born to two parents - illiterate Somali parents - in a place called Thika, Kenya, but never took citizenship. And in 1989, my family was forcefully deported to Somalia. And so when the civil war broke out, I was actually a refugee inside Somalia. My mother had to stay back, and so I was tasked with the responsibility of taking my two younger siblings out of the country. When we were on transit in Moscow, because of a Russian man who had worked in Somalia with the Russian army - helped us to get a day visa. And that is how we got into Moscow. And from Moscow, the nearest destination was Helsinki. And we've been here ever since. Finland gave us sanctuary. It gave me an education. As you mentioned, I'd only started reading and writing at the age of 14. But when I came to this country, they didn't give up on me. I had a bachelor's in nursing, got two master's from Finland. In addition to the one from Harvard, I have three master's and now currently doing my Ph.D. So Finland gave me the skills that I want to take back to my country.
MARTIN: I understand you have kids, right?
DAYIB: Yes.
MARTIN: You've got a family. You're a mother. How do you talk about all of this to them? How do you explain what you're doing, the risks that you face, and why you think it's worth it?
DAYIB: My children know who I am. They know the kind of mother they've had. I see myself as a servant of my people, and I take my life as a vocation of calling. My mother lost 11 children. I am the first of her children to survive. And that means to me there is something much bigger than me being on this earth and doing other things. And so my children accept that. And when I was going to Mogadishu in January, I sat them down and I told them that I'm leaving you, but I'm not sure I might come back. And if I don't, then you have to know that you are also expected to do this. When the day comes and you have the capability to do so, you must fight for democracy. We must not let evil overcome goodness. And they understand why we need to do this for Somalia because they share the love that I have for Somalia.
MARTIN: Fadumo Dayib is running for president of Somalia. Thank you so much.
DAYIB: Thank you for the opportunity.
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.
Upcoming Event:
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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