Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Istanbul, 14 April 1996
N°2

The average percentage of women in the world's parliaments remains low -- at 11.6% (upper and lower Houses) -- according to new figures released by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organization of parliaments, meeting in Istanbul 14 April 1996.

The Nordic countries are still electing most women to parliament, with Sweden leading with 40.4% of its parliament composed of women legislators, Norway with 39.4%, Finland with 33.5%, and Denmark with 33.0%. Six parliaments have no women representatives: Comoros, Djibouti, Kuwait, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea and United Arab Emirates.

The new figures were released during a meeting of women parliamentarians meeting in the Ciragan Palace on the eve of the 95th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, the twice-annual general meeting of representatives of the world's parliaments. One hundred and eleven women MPs from seventy-four countries are attending the meeting -- or 19.1 % of the total delegates (men and women MPs) registered for the IPU Conference. The women parliamentarians meeting is overseeing the IPU's work in promoting women's participation in politics and in particular focusing on the problem of organized violence against women. The IPU believes that democracy will only assume true significance when political policies and national legislation are decided upon jointly by women and men in the interests of both halves of the population.

The women parliamentarians' meeting will also be looking at progress under way on a survey on women's participation in the activities of political parties and on how electoral systems and procedures adversely affect women's chances of becoming MPs.

Chairing the one-day meeting of women parliamentarians, Turkish Minister of State, Dr Imren Aykut, told participants that only 13 members in the 550-seat Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), or 2.4%, were women, following the December 1995 general elections.

On the subject of organized violence against women, Dr Aykut said she had visited Bosnia and Herzegovina the previous week, where she had seen an enormous children's cemetery, a multitude of handicapped children and orphans, and homeless women with no medical facilities or places where they could give birth.

Dr Aykut appealed to the women parliamentarians for their "immediate help and assistance", including contacting their national aid organizations to focus more on this problem. "We must immediately repair the hospitals in Bosnia and build rehabilitation centres for handicapped people and all the children without families. I volunteer my services to organize these assistance efforts," she said.

She noted that "in all societies women and young girls are subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence, no matter what income group they come from."

The President of the IPU Council, Dr Ahmed Fathy Sorour, told the meeting that "democracy, equality and equity cannot be achieved by political representation alone, but also by raising the standard of living and bringing welfare to society as a whole."

"It has become plain that poverty does not sustain democracy, and that conflict does not provide an atmosphere conducive to the free exercise of political rights", Sorour said.

He also stressed the important role of women in conflict situations.

"We have all seen the degradation that women go through in situations such as those in Bosnia, Somalia, and elsewhere, where women, together with their children, constitute the greater part of the floods of refugees. I believe that when dealing with question of organized violence against women, you should already start addressing issues such as these."

Mrs Tati Darsoyo, member of the Indonesian House of Representatives, and chairperson of the IPU Co-ordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, told the meeting that the IPU, in its work of promoting the participation and status of women in politics, was trying to find out "what is the core of the problem".

She said this was the purpose of the new IPU world survey under way to "provide a better insight of the proportion, role and impact of women within political parties" and "understand how the electoral process sets aside, partly or totally, more than half of the world population". This survey will be completed in time for the next major IPU world symposium on "Towards Partnership between Men and Women in Politics", in New Delhi, in February 1997.