Kenya's rights activists are furious that the country's highest court "violated" women's constitutional rights by ruling against the implementation of a gender quota in parliament ahead of the 2013 general elections.
Mrs Adekemi Ndieli, National Programme Officer, UNDP (UN Women), has challenged the political parties in Nigeria to be more affirmative in supporting women to win elective positions through concerted efforts.
KA-DER (Female Electoral Candidates Support Association) released a statement today--on the 78th anniversary of Turkish women's acquisition of suffrage rights--urging the political parties to revise their quota system in their decision-making mechanisms.
The Assistant Minister of Local Government, Botlhogile Tshireletso, has called for reservation of parliamentary seats for women in order to raise the voice of the distaff section of the National Assembly.
Papua New Guinea’s three women MPs have ruled out supporting legislation for reserved seats for women.
And a prominent supporter of the legislation says the debate over women’s seats may have served its purpose.
Megan Whelan has more.
UNDP has called for the formation of a caucus of women political leaders across party lines to enhance women’s participation within political parties and to advocate for the Women’s Reservation Bill as a collective voice.
Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia described the fatwa issued by the Scientific Council of the Ibadi Confession in Ghardaia forbidding the nomination of women in local elections in the province as an “internal fatwa that concerns a particular community.''
Brazilians will return to the polls next week less than a month after voters elected a record number of women as mayors, but gender equality is still a distant goal in a political culture long dominated by men.