Although women now account for more than a quarter of all parliamentarians worldwide, gender parity is still “far, far away”.
That’s according to Zeina Hilal of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the UN partner organization working to make parliaments more representative.
She said despite progress on the political representation front, including nations across Asia, women still face challenges including discrimination, harmful stereotypes, violence and harassment.
The proportion of women parliamentarians worldwide reached more than 25 per cent last year– a historic first but still far from gender parity, UN partner the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) announced on Friday ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March.
Education is the “great equalizer” and Parliaments have a major role to play in scaling up action to ensure that adequate financial resources are allocated to education, girls’ education and technical and vocational training throughout in national budgetary processes, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Monday.
Young democracies are doing better at enhancing women’s representation in parliament than the established democracies of Europe, Martin Chungong, the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), has said.
IPU released its flagship report, “Women in Parliament in 2016: The year in review,” ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, calling for renewed momentum to ensure women’s voices are included in decision-making processes.
A study of 55 women members of parliament (MPs) from across the globe reveals that the majority have experienced death threats, rape threats and other forms of psychological violence.
Furthermore, 20 per cent of the MPs reported that they have been slapped, pushed or struck by an object that could have caused injury, while 12 per cent were threatened with use of a firearm, knife or other weapon.
The study conducted by UN partner the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows how women’s political participation has been met with sexism, harassment and even physical attacks.
The Arab world has elected its first-ever woman Speaker of Parliament.
Dr Amal Al Qubaisi has been elected as Speaker of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Parliament, making her the first-ever woman Speaker of an Arab national parliament.
She has been a parliamentarian in the UAE since 2006, where she has been particularly active on youth and gender issues.
Veronica Reeves spoke with Zeina Hilal from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). She started by asking her what percentage of parliamentarians worldwide are women.
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Good governance and democracy are “non-negotiable” and must be implemented across all regions of the world with the help of parliamentarians.
That’s according to the Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Martin Chungong is currently at UN Headquarters in New York for the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.
It is time to help people live their dreams by ensuring that commitments made by governments are kept, according to the president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Saber Chowdhury is currently at UN Headquarters in New York for IPU’s Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.
