WOMEN SPEAKERS MAKE AN IMPACT IN PARLIAMENT

During the meeting entitled Gender Equality on the Legislative Agenda: The role of women presiding over parliament, the Speaker of the Senate of Jamaica and her colleagues stressed that women’s active participation in legislation, as parliamentarians, is vital to the articulation of women’s issues. Women, they added, have to be in parliament and talk about the problems they encounter in areas as diverse as poverty, economic empowerment, health and population, violence, democracy and human rights.

The Speakers said that the changes brought by women parliamentarians to the institution of parliament operated on different levels. Women are instrumental in transforming the actual physical premises of Parliament to make them more gender- friendly and better adapted to the needs of working women with families (for instance, requesting facilities such as day-care centers, toilets, gyms, etc). They bring about changes in the institutional culture, using their influence to apply working methods and procedures to make parliaments better adapted to women members (meeting times etc).

Women change the institutional discourse to attune it more to their values. This often entails changes in language and vocabulary that had originated in traditional patriarchal thinking. Finally, according to the Speakers present in New York, women influence the legislative agenda to ensure that issues of particular importance to women are given a place in the debate. It is a fact that women Speakers of parliament can be potential role models. They can also wield influence outside the parliament because their position gives them the opportunity to voice their opinions in other fora.

	IPU Yearly Analysis on Women in Politics One out of five parliamentarians elected in 2005 is a woman In total, 20% of legislators elected in single or lower chambers in 2005 were women, according to statistics published by the IPU to mark International Women's Day. By the end of 2005, an average of 16.3% of the upper and lower houses of parliament were women, up from 15.7% in December 2004. This trend confirms the sustained progress made since 1995, when the proportion of women in parliament stood at 11.3% A higher ratio of women parliamentarians was registered in 28 of the 39 parliaments that held elections in 2005 (72 per cent). Significantly, in nine countries, more than 30 per cent of those elected or returned to parliament were women. Norway topped the ranks in 2005. Some 37.9 per cent of those elected in Norway were women, placing it in third position behind Rwanda and Sweden in the global ranking.

	Gender equality must be promoted This year's annual parliamentary meeting at the CSW, jointly organized in New York by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the IPU, brought together 150 parliamentarians from all regions of the world. It provided an opportunity to discuss parliamentary mechanisms to promote gender equality within the institution of parliament. What is needed is "gender equality beyond figures", said Mrs. Britt Bohlin Ohlsson, Member of the Swedish Parliament. Particular attention was paid to the role of parliamentary committees and bodies dealing with gender equality. The IPU released a provisional directory of these bodies. To date, some 60 parliaments have reported the existence of a specific body to address gender equality. Such committees are important in defending women’s rights and promoting gender issues. Emphasis was placed on the need to ensure cooperation between these committees and other bodies, within and outside the parliament, and on the importance of facilitating contact between them, which is an area in which the IPU intends to do more work.

	Parliamentarians commit to child protection in the Asia-Pacific region Exploitation, violence, prostitution, trafficking: every year, millions of children throughout the world suffer abuse. With a view to addressing these issues and developing a protective framework for children, members of parliament from 13 Asia-Pacific countries met in Viet Nam in February 2006 for a regional seminar hosted by the National Assembly and organized jointly by the IPU and UNICEF. During the three-day meeting, participants discussed parliamentary mechanisms, and more particularly the role of parliamentary committees in protecting children. Attention also focused on two specific themes of particular regional relevance: trafficking of children and violence against children. There was agreement on the need for international legal instruments on children along with the proper enforcement of adequate legislation. Regional parliamentary cooperation to ensure complementarity of action and harmonization of legislation was also highlighted, as was the need to develop specific mechanisms to address child protection issues within parliament. Participants met with Minister Le Thi Thu, who is also Chairwoman of the Committee on Population, Family and Children of Viet Nam, before visiting the Hoa Binh children's village, which looks after disabled children and children in need.