Press release of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Windhoek, 5 April 1998
N° 2

WOMEN MPs OPEN MEETING IN WINDHOEK

One hundred and twelve women parliamentarian from 73 countries came together in Windhoek today for their first-ever world-wide meeting in Southern Africa, under the auspices of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world organisation of parliaments.

The Meeting of Women Parliamentarians, which is taking place on the eve of the 99th Inter-Parliamentary Conference, was opened by its Chairperson, Mrs Pashukeni Shoombe, Member of the Namibian National Assembly. She said the Namibian people were " proud and privileged " to host the Conference, and the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians would " contribute positively " to the aims and objectives of strengthening democracy through partnership between men and women in politics: " We are here to advise each other on how to correct the imbalances in the participation of men and women in economic, social and political life. "

Mrs Shoombe said the IPU's Meeting of Women Parliamentarians has become an " influential group " in promoting gender partnership, and noted that the percentage of women in national delegations to IPU Conferences had risen from 8 percent in 1975 to almost 20 percent today.

" Namibian women have been key actors in the liberation struggle, " she also said, adding that since Namibia's independence in 1990, Namibian women have been " contributing very actively to the country's political and economic development ". In political participation women had attained the level of 40 percent of elected candidates in local elections and 18 percent in the Namibian Parliament, she said.

According to IPU statistics released at the Meeting, currently (situation on 20 March 1998) women occupy on average only 12.3% of parliamentary seats world-wide (12.7% in the Lower Houses and 9.9% in Upper Houses or Senates). The highest percentage is in Sweden (40.4%), while the parliaments of ten countries (Comoros, Djibouti, Jordan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, United Arab Emirates) have no women legislators at all.

The President of the Inter-Parliamentary Council, Mr Miguel Angel Martínez, told the women parliamentarians that their Meeting was the best way to launch the IPU Conference in Windhoek, and praised Namibian women for the part they played in the country's independence struggle and also since independence.

" The IPU is very deeply satisfied to see in Namibia the effort that was invested in independence did not stop after independence, but continued to make a free democratic society which respects human rights and the rule of law. "

Mr  Martínez called it a " serious problem " that a high proportion of the 50 percent of the world's population is " kept out " of politics. " This is sincerely not acceptable any longer, " he said, " and for the world order to be a democratic one, women must play a much stronger role. "

He called for the women parliamentarians to " mobilise " themselves in support of three initiatives under consideration in the IPU to enhance the voice of women, which were voted unanimously by the Meeting. These concern amending the IPU statutes to provide a statutory and stronger basis to the activities of women parliamentarians at the IPU. While acknowledging that " these changes could meet with resistance, " Martínez made a commitment that " the IPU would not enter the 21st century without at least one-third of its membership being women, and women having a larger decision-making role. "

Mrs Shoombe said such decisions were " overdue and we're going to fight to make them a reality ".

Mr Martínez pledged to lend his support to the Meeting's work and conclusions, which will be presented by Mrs Shoombe to the IPU Council when it meets in Windhoek on April 11.

Mrs Netumbo-Nandi Ndaitwah, Director General of the Women Department in the Office of the President of Namibia, told the Meeting that " political and economic empowerment are a prerequisite for sustainable democracy ".

" Economic weaknesses force women to compromise some of their basic human rights thus posing a threat to democracy, if democracy is understood to mean participation, " the Director General said. " In many countries of the world including Namibia, women continue to be under-represented at many levels of decision-making within the different levels of the democratic system. Many of those women are absent as they continue to struggle with nature in rural areas in an attempt to support their families who are living hand-to-mouth due to persistent poverty. "

This is why, Mrs Ndaitwah said, the items on the agenda of the Meeting - women in the economic informal sector and their access to micro-credits; women's contribution to the democratic process; and strategies to ensure that women are elected to posts - could not have come at a better time. She called for the Meeting to arrive at " clear conclusions " on women's empowerment both politically and economically, and expressed the hope that they would form part of the preparation for the UN General Assembly's high-level review in the year 2000 of the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Beijing Platform for Action.

" It is imperative that women parliamentarians keep a closer eye on trends of the international economic system, assess their impact on women and develop strategies aimed at removing women from the vicious cycle of poverty, " Mrs Ndaitwah said.

The Chairperson of the IPU's Co-ordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians, Mrs Faiza Kéfi (Tunisia), said the overall objective of the Meeting was to make partnership between men and women in politics an " unstoppable reality " for the next century, and see the IPU as a " prototype institution " where the rights of women are an integral part of human rights.

She lauded the IPU for having " facilitated the diffusion of new ideas and information about the role of women in politics and in the different sectors of development. " Mrs Kéfi cited the IPU world map showing the percentages of women in the different parliaments around the world, the various IPU studies on promoting gender equality, the specialised meetings held on the subject, and the Gender Partnership group set up within the IPU to ensure that the interests of both women and men are given equal consideration in all the organisation's activities.

" Thanks to our perseverance, we are advancing and achieving successes, " Mrs Kéfi said. " However, we are still only at the beginning of the road and we must continue along it with firm perseverance. "

The women parliamentarians paid a standing homage to the retiring IPU Secretary General, Pierre Cornillon, praising especially his continuing support of their activities and for the development of IPU's programme on women's issues.

Women MPs also observed a minute of silence to honour the memory of Bella Abzug, former member of the US Congress and a leading figure of the feminist movement world-wide, who died in New York last Tuesday.

The Meeting agreed that the IPU will launch this year a world-wide enquiry aimed at interviewing women politicians on how they view democracy and assess their impact on the outcome of politics and also on the internal culture and functioning of political parties, of parliaments and of governments. The women recommended that a meeting be organised jointly with UNESCO in 1999 to interpret these data with the contribution of male and female politicians, representatives of the media and resource persons from various walks of life such as politologists, sociologists, philosophers, historians and representatives of agencies carrying out electoral polls.

The Meeting also agreed that, in the exercise of their oversight function of governments, parliaments should assist the UN in securing full implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), through adopting the enabling legislation and ensuring that the national reports due the CEDAW Committee of the UN are presented; currently 56 of the 161 countries having ratified CEDAW have never presented such a report despite the fact that this is an obligation under the Treaty. They also urged the adoption of the Optional Protocol of the Convention currently under preparation.

The Meeting further decided to propose to the IPU Council that the IPU be actively involved in the process of review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action. Considering that the commitments made at Beijing concern all institutions of the State, the Meeting suggested that a joint UN-IPU meeting be organised during the Special Session of the UN General Assembly, from 5 to 9 June 2000, to ensure proper synergy between the efforts of parliaments and governments to follow-up on the Beijing Platform of Action.

The women parliamentarians will meet again on Friday 10 April, to complete their work. They will then hear the three short-listed candidates for the post of IPU Secretary General.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact at the Safari Court Media Centre:

tel. (264 61) 257.840; fax: 255.337
IPU Information Officer: Robin Newmann; Namibian Press Officer: Francis Xoagub