While several female politicians, including former legislator Angelina Sondakh, have been embroiled in graft cases recently, politicians and experts are upbeat that an increased number of women in the House of Representatives will boost the legislature’s performance and standing.
Releasing its annual analysis on the statistics on women MPs ahead of International Women’s Day (8th March), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) found 2012 represented a year of higher than usual level of progress on women’s political participation.
Film: Burundi has one of the highest allocations of seats in parliament for women, numbering 36% of all MPs. There is also a 30% quota policy for women's political participation at lower levels of the administration.
Report on the evolution of women's poltiical participation in Libya and the implementation of quotas.
(Report available at: NDI)
NDI’s ongoing qualitative research revealed that while Libyans were broadly supportive of women playing roles in public life, there was significant disagreement over what type of engagement is best-suited to women.
Thirty Saudi women have taken seats in Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, for the first time in the conservative kingdom's history, as they were sworn in before King Abdullah at his palace in the capital, Riyadh.
Constitutional law professor Yusril Ihza Mahendra has questioned the 30 percent quota for women in the Indonesian electoral system, doubting the legal foundation of the quota and expressing a desire for the Constitutional Court to repeal it.
The National Commission for Women and its counterparts in the states on Wednesday said they will meet the Prime Minister and the leaders of opposition in both the houses of Parliament to press for 33 per cent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
BAGHDAD, Jan 16 2013 (IPS) - From full literacy declared in the seventies, Iraq is down to 40 percent literacy for women.