Democracy and the equal participation of men and women in the political arena are closely intertwined. No parliament or any decision-making body can claim to be representative without the participation of both men and women. As stated in the Universal Declaration on Democracy adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Member Parliaments in 1997, "The achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences."
Recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of women in parliament, though the world average of less than 22 percent remains far from the goal of parity between women and men. The election of women to the highest positions of state and government in several countries has also contributed to the changing face of politics.
While the road to election is a difficult one, the challenges for women do not stop there. Once women enter parliament or other bodies, they are faced with many new challenges. Parliament is traditionally a male-oriented domain where the rules and practices have been written by men. It is, therefore, an ongoing challenge to transform parliament into a gender-sensitive environment, to ensure that actions are gender-sensitive and to guarantee that gender is mainstreamed throughout the legislature.
raqi legislator Vian Dakhil on Monday received the Anna Politkovskaya prize for her denunciation of the jihadist group Islamic State over its brutal treatment of Yazidi women.
Short compilation about the participation of youth in parliament.
The first IPU Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians will bring together young members of parliaments, youth leaders from other walks of life and experts from ac
Photo-Ruters/Yya/Shino/Files
This wonderful infographic summarizes all the relevant data on women in all branches of government as well as legislation in place for women's political participation from around the world.
Armed with perseverance and determination, numerous elite Lebanese women gathered Wednesday next to the Interior Ministry to stress that the Lebanese political field is incomplete without their participation.
Eight weeks from Election Day, the heads of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee view the battle for the Senate through very different prisms -- though they share some of the same views on how the midterms are shaking out.
Till such time that the 33% representation in legislatures and the Parliament is not made mandatory, they will be happy to make all the right noises on women’s representation and leave it at that. All the canvassing and grass-root work by women’s organisations would have yielded little.
Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER) is gravely concerned with the quality of the debate going on regarding a woman candidate for the Selangor Menteri Besar (MB) post.