Rwanda: Women Parliamentarians Assess Gender Sensitivity

The number of women in parliament is not enough to show that parliament is gender-sensitive. This was said by Honorable Alphonsine Mukarugema, the chairwoman of Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum (RWPF) at the occasion of a consultative meeting organized by the forum, which took place yesterday at the parliament with a theme: 'A Gender Sensible Parliament'.

The meeting was organized in order to understand what a gender-sensitive parliament looks like and to conduct a self-assessment of the Rwandan parliament towards those criteria.

"If as a parliament we are not gender-sensitive, we will not be able to monitor other institutions on the matter," declared Jean-Damascène Ntawukuriryayo, president of the senate.

According to Sonia Palmieri, an expert on gender from Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), characteristics of a gender-sensitive parliament include setting a positive example (role model) to society at large in such matters, removing barriers to women's full participation and providing a workplace that is attractive to women.

Read the complete story at All Africa, published 27 July 2012.