Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Geneva - New York, 6 March 2000
N° 93

On the occasion of “International Women's Day”, 8th March, the Inter-Parliamentary Union is launching the online bibliographical database "Women in Politics" at its Web site. This tool is intended to provide an effective means of gearing research and access to bibliographical references to the various aspects of women's participation in political life.

To date, "Women in Politics" contains over 800 references which cover nearly 100 countries. Regularly updated to take into account new books and articles published throughout the world, the Union's database is designed to be a "look-out" to spot changes in issues relating to women's participation in politics.

"Today, anyone wishing to know what has been written on the subject of women's participation in political life is faced with a challenge: not so much the challenge of the scarcity of bibliographical references, but rather that of the difficulty of gaining access to a reliable database containing a broad selection of bibliographical references grouped by affinities. The Inter-Parliamentary Union proposes to fill this gap with the online database 'Women in Politics'", asserted Anders B. Johnsson, IPU Secretary General.

This bilingual database (English and French) was developed with the financial support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and implemented with the support of national parliaments the world over, which drew attention to relevant books and articles on women in politics.

"Women in Politics" offers a selection of documents including references to legal texts (Conventions, Plans of action, declarations, etc.); references to publications and documents from international organisations (since 1985); references to publications and articles produced in various countries by experts and researchers (since 1985) and references to Internet sites. It enables users to conduct searches by topic, by region/country, by organisation, by document type or by author and year of publication.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union, the world organisation of parliaments created in 1889 and based in Geneva, currently has 139 member parliaments and five affiliated regional parliamentary assemblies. It promotes partnership between men and women as one of the foundations of democracy. At the world level, the Inter-Parliamentary Union is among the richest bibliographical sources. This is due to the world-wide comparative studies it has carried out since the late 1970s. It is also due to the varied and innovative nature of its initiatives to encourage women's political awareness, their participation in the electoral process as both voters and candidates, and their contribution to parliamentary activity as political actors on an equal footing with men.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union has a Liaison Office with the UN in New York, tel. +1.212 557 5880, fax +1.212 557 3954, e-mail: ny-office@mail.ipu.org.

Contact person for additional information or interviews:
Mrs. Luisa Ballin, Information Officer, tel.: +41.22.919.41.16 or 919.41.27, fax: +41.22.919.41.60, e-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cd@mail.ipu.org.