Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Havana, 1 April 2001
N° 2

Some 148 women parliamentarians from 94 countries took part in the Fifth Meeting of Women Parliamentarians in Havana, Cuba, against the backdrop of the 105th Inter-Parliamentary Conference being held until 7 April at the Havana Convention Centre. The Meeting of Women Parliamentarians is part of the official structure of the Conference.

Mrs Viola Furubjelke, President of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, underlied the fact that "the Women's meeting is already a tradition and an institution in the IPU; this is the fifth meeting and I am pleased to see the positive development that has taken place in observing a gender perspective in the IPU activities."

Mrs Furubjelke who is also the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Swedish Parliament, opened the meeting stressing that "as parliamentarians we have a specific and important role in the ratratification process of international instruments. Ratification is necessary, but not enough. It is in the implementation stage that we, as legislators, have an extremely important role to play".

The Chairperson of the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians took the floor on behalf of the host parliament. Mrs Vilma Lucia Espin Guillois, member of the Cuban National Assembly and President of the Federation of Cuban Women, declared : "We have entered the 21st century in a world of glaring contrasts: thanks to the science and technology revolution, enormous strides have been made in communications, genetics, and medicine, yet the numbers of those excluded from access to knowledge and a decent life continue to grow."

In her concluding remarks, Mrs Espin said that the item "Respect for the principles of international law in the interests of world-wide peace and security" was particularly apposite "at a time when increasingly aggressive stances threaten war, the powerful continue for no reason to attack smaller countries and State terrorism is still practised. The agreements reached at the end of our Conference will undoubtedly be the richer for the proposals made by the Fifth Meeting of Women Parliamentarians will contribute from the perspective of women's lofty responsibilities in human society."

The President of the IPU Council, Dr. Najma Heptulla reminded that "we are less than 14% women in both the Houses of Parliament all over the world and when we look into the state of women at the grassroots level we find that the situation is far from satisfactory. There are very substantive issues pertaining to women's empowerment that have not been addressed. The trends of globalisation and the consequent disparities, which have been generated, are causing a greater marginalisation of women", stressed Dr. Heptulla.

"As the representatives of people, the Members of Parliament can ensure in their respective constituencies that the concerns of economic independence and empowerment of women are addressed to more realistically", underlined the President of the IPU Council. "It is imperative to analyse international laws with a gender perspective too. Even after 20 years of the adoption of CEDAW and subsequent related treaties, we have not been able to adequately give a gender perspective to national laws and obligations", she added.

The President of the IPU Council concluded her intervention by stressing the need that "Governments and Parliaments have to take more sustained efforts to provide for a legal framework, which promoted equality in all fields".

Mr. Ricardo Alarcon, President of the National Assembly of the People's Power, took the floor at the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians. He pointed out that "according to the UN, the total number of persons below the poverty threshold at present is equal to world population twenty years ago, when Havana was the venue for IPU's 68th Conference. He added that many changes and new development had taken place in the meanwhile, some of which were negative such as the HIV-AIDS epidemic, which threatened the survival of entire nations, for example in Africa. In closing, he stated "poverty has a woman's face, because it hits women hardest. For example, two-thirds of all illiterate persons are women, and every year 585,000 women lose their lives as a result of pregnancy."

In the context of an interactive hearing on the parliamentary dimension of the United Nations, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Mrs. Angela King, noted that "the IPU has played a very positive role in promoting ratification of the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and in bringing support to the UN. One hundred and sixty-seven countries have already ratified the CEDAW, the last two being the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, what really matters is not ratification but rather the establishment of mechanisms for application: for example, we need women police officers to hear women who wish to lodge complaints concerning domestic violence or rape." In the context of UN-IPU cooperation, Mrs. King emphasised parliamentarians' role in increasing awareness and promoting the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW.

She welcomed the organisation of a panel discussion on this subject between Members of Parliaments of either sex and representatives of the United Nations on Wednesday 4 April aimed at raising political awareness of the importance of that instrument and the need to secure its early and massive ratification.

The Meeting of Women Parliamentarians will submit a draft resolution on the 105th IPU Conference agenda item on "Securing observance of the principles of international law in the interest of world peace and security". Their wide-encompassing recommendation cover issues such as: gender-based violence and ways of preventing it as well as sanctioning it including when it occurs in the context of armed conflicts; and appeal to all States to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the increased inclusion of women in peace negotiations and the settlement of disputes and the involvement of women in safety and security structures.

Established in 1889 and based in Geneva, the IPU, the world organisation of parliaments, has 141 member parliaments and five associated regional parliamentary assemblies. It has a liaison office with the UN in New York.