NEW YORK, 1 March (IPS): Although nearly 17 percent of the worlds parliamentarians are women – a rise of 4,7 percent compared to 1995 and an all-time high – the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) says that the pace of reform is so slow, it would be another 70 years before women achieved full parity with men in politics.
– I have great doubts about the coming years, says IPU Secretary-General Anders B. Johnsson, adding: – I do expect setbacks to happen, but I hope we can successfully reverse them.
On Mar. 1, the IPU presented its latest statistics on women in parliament following parliamentary turnovers in 51 countries (61 chambres of parliament) over the last 12 years.
Rwanda continues to rank in first place, with women holding 48,8 percent of seats in the Lower House. Still, only three other countries in the world have reached at least 30 percent female representation – Sweden (47,3 percent), Costa Rica (38,6) and the Netherlands (36,7).
– The increase in the number of women is slower than in the preceding years and if we are aiming for equality in parliament – roughly 50 percent men and 50 percent women – then we will wait until 2077 to celebrate this event, Johnsson noted.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro also recognised this gloomy trend. During the opening of the 51st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) this week, she said:
– Thanks to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action, we have a clear road map for all actors – governments, civil society and the United Nations family – to end discrimination against women and girls and to speed up progress towards gender equality.
– But while goals and commitments are in place, we still have far to go in ensuring their full implementation of representation in decision-making positions, Tanzanian national Migiro added.
The IPU saw missed opportunities in post-conflict states: -Most of them were doing well and made sure women can be elected, but in DR Congo and Haiti that was not the case. The number of female parliamentarians therefore decreased, Johnsson said.
– Maybe one reason for the decrease in DR Congo and Haiti is the fact that there were no quota systems in either one of those countries, he wondered, adding:
– In countries that practice some kind of quota system, the number of women returned in those elections reached almost 22 percent, while in the countries that do not use quota systems, this percentage was barely 12 percent. This is a considerable difference.
The good news, Johnsson said, is that “the number of women who are presiding parliaments is higher than ever”. Of the 262 presiding officer posts in parliaments around the world, 35 are occupied by women. Several of them were elected just recently.
In the Arab states, progress continues too. The United Arab Emirates has the “honour of being the country with the highest increase of all countries,” Johnsson said The percentage of women in that parliament increased from 0 percent to 22 percent. – This reflects a growing trend in that part of the world where more and more women can vote but are also elected to parliament, he said.
Latin America is the continent with the highest female representation in parliaments. In most of the recent 20 elections, women made notable gains.
The IPU reported that of the 43.882 parliament seats in the world, 36.446 are occupied by men and 7.436 by women.
The percentage of women in single and lower houses throughout the world is 17,1. There are 33.174 parliamentarians active in single or lower houses – 30.812 of them are men and 6.326 are women.
In the upper houses and senates of the 51 countries surveyed, 16 percent of the parliamentarians are women.
Established in 1889, the IPU is a focal point of worldwide parliamentary dialogue and works for peace and cooperation among peoples and for the firm establishment of representative democracy.
Kilder: IPS og The Push Journal
