Dear Member of Parliament,

The Women in Parliaments Global Forum (WIP) is delighted to invite you to the Annual Summit 2013, taking place at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium from 27 to 29 November 2013.

This exceptional meeting coincides with the very day the women of New Zealand became the first in the world to vote in a national election, 120 years ago. Today, WIP is the only global forum offering female Parliamentarians from all over the world the opportunity to get together and be part of a special event.

Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka met with women leaders in Mali, listening as women asked for action to protect women’s rights and train security officers. Pledging robust support from UN Women, she made a strong call for the voices of women to be heard at all levels, saying that, “Women’s full participation is critical for long-term stability across the region.” - See more at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/11/ed-visit-to-the-sahel#st…

“Women do not represent women in my country. They represent the voices of the men, the families that surround them, and their political party: but not women. They are not feminists,” according to Basma Soudani, from The League of Tunisian Female Voters in Tunisia, as we sat down for an interview.

In Cameroon, defenders of gender equality and the empowerment of women today have a reason to celebrate. This follows the announcement of the results of the legislative elections held on 30 September 2013. The results of the elections, announced in October have ensured that the National Assembly now has 56 women deputies, out of a total 180, i.e. 31.1 per cent. 

We invite our users to read the full article published on October 25th 2013 by UN Women.

Women voters have been outnumbering male voters in Mizoram for the past few years, but paradoxically there are no women representatives in the state legislature for years together. 

According to the voters' lists published on August 16, of the 6,86,305 total voters, there are 3,49,506 female voters and 3,36,799 male voters. In the 2008 final electoral roll also, of the total 6.08,561 voters, female voters comprised 3,08,659 against 2,99,902 male voters. 

On September 15, Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi wrote his first-ever op-ed in hopes of reassuring the Yemeni people of the current political transition’s progress. The article, published in the Yemen Times and available only in English, highlights the role of women during the transition and praises the status of women in Yemen.

In an era of government distrust, political gridlock, and legislative dysfunction, women may be the power players who forge solutions and help address our nation’s most divisive problems, argues Swanee Hunt in a recent article in Global Post. Ms. Hunt is a Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School andChairwoman of Political Parity—an organization “dedicated to increasing the number of women serving in the highest levels of government.”