Asia and the Pacific

The head of the United Nations Development Programme says her organisation will happily support MPs who want to re-introduce legislation to increase women’s political representation.

Across the Pacific, only about 5 percent of parliamentarians are women.

Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have attempted reserved seats, and legislation has been introduced in Samoa.

Helen Clark says the developing countries around the World that have made the biggest strides in women’s representation have generally employed special measures.

Women members of prominent NGOs, representatives of political parties and activists attended a discussion forum where speakers demanded that political parties include in their election manifestos issues related to women.

The discussion was organised by Gujarat Mahila Federation at SLU College in the city.

MIC president Datuk Seri G. Palanivel has given an assurance that the party would also select women as candidates in the coming general election (GE).

He hoped Wanita MIC members would dismiss unfounded rumours that the party would not field female candidates in the GE.

"I will, of course, choose women candidates. It's only fair for us to give such opportunity to the women's wing. The selection of candidates will be a key element in re-energising MIC and Barisan Nasional.

US Department of State's Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women Issues Melanne Verveer will launch Grassroots Women's Political Leadership Forum: South Asia Regional Women's Political Leadership Summit at the Asian University of Women in Chittagong on Sept 9.

Grassroots women leaders from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka will take part in the 10-day programme on development of political leadership.

Read more at bdnews24, published 6 September 2012.

Vice-chairperson of the CPN-UML, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, has stressed on promoting women's representation in the national politics for ensuring their rights.

Addressing the first conference of All Nepal Women's Association, Kathmandu Constituency No. 5 here on Saturday, she said women's representation in national politics and state bodies was not to the expected level though the Nepali women's remarkable contribution to various political movements.

Haghighatjoo, who holds a doctorate in psychology, served in the Iranian Parliament for four years beginning in 2000. After much gender discrimination and an arrest for criticizing the country’s leaders, she became the first member to resign after the anti-reform Guardian Council banned thousands of reformist candidates from the 7th Parliamentary election. In parliament, Haghighatjoo worked on human rights and women’s issues such as family planning and divorce law. 

Sri Lanka's main opposition United National Party (UNP) is to present a private member's motion in parliament to protect women and child rights in the country.

UNP parliamentarian Rosy Senanayake says the bill while safeguarding women and child rights would also introduce sever punishments for child abusers and rapists.

She said that immediate steps needed to be taken to address the increasing cases of child abuse and rape of women.

The MP explained that laws related to such offenses have to be amended and strengthened.

India moved one step closer to protecting millions of its working women from sexual harassment by passing a new bill to tackle unwelcome behaviour such as sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and sexual innuendoes made at work.

The Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill was passed by the lower house of parliament on Monday and aims to ensure a safe environment for women working in both the public and private sector. The bill still has to be passed by the upper house of parliament, a move that is expected in the coming months.

The two-day regional conference on human rights instruments, international labor standards, and women migrant workers' rights was held here on Tuesday, aiming at ensuring the protection of women migrant workers and to guarantee their access to justice, according a joint media release on Tuesday.