Japan 98th in terms of female lawmakers
A record 18.8 percent of lawmakers around the world are women, an Inter-Parliamentary Union survey showed Japan ranked 98th at 11.3 percent with 54 of its 480 Lower House seats held by women. A year earlier, Japan placed 104th at 9.4 percent. Japan trails China, in 55th, North Korea, 78th, and South Korea, 82nd. “The year 2009 was marked by continued progress for women in parliament,” said the report by the Geneva-based IPU, which tracks women’s progress and setbacks in the political arena. “The global average for the proportion of women in parliament reached an all-time high of 18.8 percent.” The data represented the percentage of women in unicameral parliaments or in the lower houses of parliament, and reflected elections that took place up to last Jan. 1. Rwanda led the world with women accounting for 56.3 percent of its lower house parliamentarians, followed by Sweden at 46.4 percent, South Africa at 44.5 percent, Cuba at 43.2 percent and Iceland at 42.9 percent.
Kyodo News - 5 March 2010

FGM: The involvement of men is crucial to ending the practice
The fight against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa can in no way circumvent the decisive involvement of men, said experts and actors in the field on the eve of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM. “If the men decide to do away with the practice, for sure the women will follow suit, because until now, I have only seen one woman step into the breach to demand that “Our girls must be excised!”. That was the explanation provided to the AFP by Dr. Omar Mariko, a physician and MP from Mali. “Who steps into the breach to say it is our tradition, our culture? It’s the men”, he told the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva. In Mali, over 90 per cent of women aged between 15 and 49 years have mutilated genital organs according to WHO, which recalls that female genital mutilation affects between 120 and 140 million women and girls in 28 countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East. “This traditional practice is a serious violation of the fundamental rights of women and girls” and “has grave consequences for their health,” causing intense pain and sometimes bleeding, sterility or death, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Dr. Mariko deeply regrets that there is no anti-FGM law in his country, but draws hope from a few targeted initiatives, such as this meeting organized by a group of 200 traditional hunter chiefs, during which a film to sensitize the audience about the issue was shown, followed by an evening of talks. “The hunters gathered around their cult objects and swore to no longer excise their girls”, he recounted jubilantly.
Agence France Presse (AFP) - 5 February 2010

Burmese MPs still languishing in prison after many years
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the situation of the Burmese parliamentarians is one of the worst in the world. At least 13 members of parliament, elected in 1990, have been languishing in prison for many years without trial. And this in spite of the IPU’s many efforts. “Some are tortured and two were assassinated in China and Thailand”, explained the President of the IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, Philippines Senator Aquilino Pimentel, in Geneva. All of the efforts made by the IPU have gone unheeded, he lamented, appealing for international mobilization. Yet another example of the violation of the rights of parliamentarians.
Journal Le Courrier et Agence télégraphique suisse (ATS) - 22 January 2010

Study: Human rights of hundreds of Members of Parliament violated
The Inter-Parliamentary Union says more than one-third of the cases it deals with of human rights violations against members of parliament are in Africa. The IPU Human Rights Committee, which has ended a review of 273 cases of parliamentarians in 29 countries, is appealing to these governments for clarification of their situation. Members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Human Rights Committee are highlighting the case of Eritrea, which it calls an orphaned country because no one is paying attention to what is happening there. Senator of Mexico and Vice-President of the Committee, Rosario Green, says the Inter-Parliamentary Union has had no information regarding the condition of 11 Eritrean parliament members who were imprisoned eight years ago.
Voice of America VOANews.com, 21 January 2010