Advancing Women In Parliament
Advancing women in Parliament 20Apr06
13-06
PRESS STATEMENT
19 Apr 2006 23:33:14
ADVANCING WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT
A Pacific regional workshop on Advancing Women's Representation in Parliament is underway in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, aimed at increasing the number of women in Pacific Island legislatures.
There is a real need to address the under-representation of women in legislatures in the Pacific, said Acting Forum Secretary General, Iosefa Maiava. The regional average of women in Pacific legislatures was 5-6% i 2005, compared to a global average of 16%. number of Forum Island Countries currently have no women in their legislatures, despite a 1994 agreed target of 30% i the Pacific Platform for the Advancement of Women.
Increased gender balance in decision-making goes hand in hand with good governance as it provides a diversity of views and directs attention to issues that might otherwise be overlooked, Mr Maiava said.
Delegates from the region, including Ministers, legislators, representatives of national women's organisations, regional bodies, donors and academics, are discussing a way forward for the region to increase women's representation to elected office. The delegates are joined by about 20 observers, mostly from the Cook Islands.
Regional and national research commissioned by the Forum Secretariat on gender barriers to elected office will be included in the material for the workshop.
The meeting is a joint initiative by the Forum Secretariat, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and UNIFEM Pacific. The eventual recommendations are to be followed up at national level.
Forum Secretariat, Suva
20 April 2006
13-06
PRESS STATEMENT
19 Apr 2006 23:33:14
ADVANCING WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT
A Pacific regional workshop on Advancing Women's Representation in Parliament is underway in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, aimed at increasing the number of women in Pacific Island legislatures.
There is a real need to address the under-representation of women in legislatures in the Pacific, said Acting Forum Secretary General, Iosefa Maiava. The regional average of women in Pacific legislatures was 5-6% i 2005, compared to a global average of 16%. number of Forum Island Countries currently have no women in their legislatures, despite a 1994 agreed target of 30% i the Pacific Platform for the Advancement of Women.
Increased gender balance in decision-making goes hand in hand with good governance as it provides a diversity of views and directs attention to issues that might otherwise be overlooked, Mr Maiava said.
Delegates from the region, including Ministers, legislators, representatives of national women's organisations, regional bodies, donors and academics, are discussing a way forward for the region to increase women's representation to elected office. The delegates are joined by about 20 observers, mostly from the Cook Islands.
Regional and national research commissioned by the Forum Secretariat on gender barriers to elected office will be included in the material for the workshop.
The meeting is a joint initiative by the Forum Secretariat, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and UNIFEM Pacific. The eventual recommendations are to be followed up at national level.
Forum Secretariat, Suva
20 April 2006
