A women’s group in Papua New Guinea says having three women in Parliament is a victory, but there is an ongoing struggle to have allocated seats.

Susan Setae, the Executive Officer of Papua Hahine Social Action Forum, says the awareness work the group does should be credited for the breakthrough.

We invite you to read the full article published August 20, 2013

In less than two months Papua New Guineans will go to the polls to elect their new national leaders. Parliamentarians will be elected to replace the current ones who have been in office since 2002.
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Political leaders in Papua New Guinea are looking at measures to get more women elected to Parliament. In the latest election just one woman, Dame Carol Kidu, who has been a member for the previous two terms, got in.
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The effort to increase women’s representation was taken off the table after it ran into political opposition. It is due to be introduced next session, but scheduled repairs to parliament house mean sittings may be delayed .
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APWLD strongly supports Dame Carol Kidu, the only female Member of Parliament in Papua New Guinea (PNG), in her efforts to get three more women to serve in the PNG Parliament.Dame Carol Kidu has untiringly spearheaded efforts to bring more women into PNG's parliament. She made three cabinet submissions, the last of which was accepted, to get approval to use a clause in the constitution to allow three nominated women members of parliament. The PNG Constitution currently allows up to three members to be nominated by two-thirds majority vote.

A politician in the autonomous Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville, Elizabeth Burain says special women’s seats in parliament have helped change attitudes and represent a victory for women. Ms Burain was elected last year to one of Bougainville’s three reserved women’s seats, brought in under the constitution in 2004. She’s told a gathering of Pacific women politicians in Wellington that the special seats have meant it’s increasingly recognised that women take on public roles.