The Inter-Parliamentary Union welcomes the result of last Sunday’s local elections in Geneva. "This is an achievement. It is great to see that women are playing a growing role in politics today in Switzerland. We hope that this will lead to further changes and that other cities and the Federal Parliament will follow this trend”, said the IPU Secretary General, Mr. Anders B. Johnsson.

He recalled that, as stated in the Universal Declaration on Democracy adopted by the IPU Council in 1997, "the achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society, in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences".

In the Geneva city parliament, women now occupy 45 of the 80 seats – a massive increase since the previous legislature, when there were only 29 women parliamentarians. Of the seven parties in the city parliament, five are now represented by a majority of women.

The result is a major breakthrough for women in the world of Swiss politics – traditionally a male preserve. Women only got the vote nationwide in 1971. At the national level, according to the latest IPU statistics, Switzerland is ranked 31st in the world list of women in parliament, with 25 per cent women legislators. Rwanda tops the list with 48.8 per cent women, followed by Sweden with 47.3 per cent.

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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 148 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations. The IPU also promotes partnership between men and women in politics. The world organization of parliaments runs projects to encourage women to participate in politics and offers training and support to them once elected to parliament. At the same time, it brings pressure to bear on countries where women are still denied political rights.
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Contact for additional information or interviews:

Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva Phone: +41 22 919 41 16 Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cbl@mail.ipu.org Mme Kareen Jabre, Programme Manager, IPU Programme for the Promotion of Partnership between Men and Women. Phone: +41 22 919 41 25 / 45 / 49 E-mail: kj@mail.ipu.org or jb@mail.ipu.org or vs@mail.ipu.org