PRESS CONFERENCE LAUNCHING 'WOMEN IN POLITICS 2000' MAP

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE LAUNCHING 'WOMEN IN POLITICS 2000' MAP

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Department of Public Information jointly launched a world map entitled "Women in Politics: 2000" at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

The map, which was launched to coincide with the Beijing+5 special session of the United Nations General Assembly, called attention to the fact that in some cases there had been a decline in the number of women in politics, Angela King, Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women told correspondents. "It is a powerful awareness-raiser", she said.

The poster-size map, which provides a snapshot of women in the two branches of State -- the Executive and the Legislature as of March 2000 -- shows that the participation of women in parliaments had changed very little since 1995, the year of the Fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing. (For more information on the map, see press release WOM/1210 of 8 June).

In certain countries progress had been good, Najima Heptulla, President of the Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union said. In other countries, however, there had actually been a decrease in the number of women serving in parliaments. Ms. Heptulla, who is also President of the Second Chamber of India, said that no democracy was complete without adequate representation of women.

Parliamentarians from more than 50 countries had participated in a meeting held by the IPU yesterday, she said. The IPU, which represented 138 countries and was more than 100 years old, had organized the meeting to focus the efforts of parliaments, governments and the United Nations system toward achieving greater representation of women in politics.

Ms. King said that since that meeting yesterday, there had been a stronger focus in the Beijing +5 negotiations in achieving consensus. "I hope that the final outcome document will be the kind of document that the United Nations, the IPU and similar organizations and women and men all over the world would be proud of, and would find in it actions they could use to improve the status of women", she said.

The map, a colorful addition to the many posters found around the United Nations complex this week, could be used by the United Nations with governments, women's groups and the private sector to encourage women to enter parliament, Ms. King said. The map showed that since 1998 -- a highpoint for women in politics -- there had been a decline. The number was, however, climbing up again. Moreover, the statistics presented on the map were extremely important to that critical area of the Beijing Platform for Action, which dealt with decision- making. While education and economic opportunities for women were vitally important, having women in the highest levels of decision-making could make a great difference.

In that regard, the poster quoted two fundamental principles as a basis for promoting gender balance in political decision-making, Ms. King said. First, it

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quoted from the 1997 Universal Declaration of Democracy that the achievements of democracy presupposed a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society, in which they worked in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences. The second principle, taken from the Beijing Platform for Action, said that without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women's perspective at all levels of decision- making, the goals of equality, development and peace could not be achieved.

The IPU global map might encourage the development of national maps of the economic and political participation of women at all levels at the national level, she said. It was her hope that it would do so. Bringing the representation of women at that level to the forefront would also facilitate the identification of constraints facing women in gaining access to those bodies. It could also lead to the development of effective support mechanisms. In addition, the need to move beyond access to decision-making, to questions of effective participation and potential for retaining power was increasingly recognized. The Department of Public Information and the Division for the Advancement of Women would assist in having the poster distributed as widely as possible to all member countries.

Anders Johnsson, the Secretary-General of the IPU, explaining the format of the map, pointed out that Sweden was the only country where women accounted for some 55 per cent of its Executive branch and about 42 per cent of its Parliament. On the other hand the map showed that the United States ranked at number 51, with women representing only 12.9 per cent of the House of Representatives and 9 per cent of its Senate. The map also revealed that the majority of women in governments were in ministries that dealt with social issues. Since 1995, there had also been a 50 per cent decrease in the number of women who served as heads of State. The Nordic countries vastly outclassed the rest of world with some 38.8 per cent female representation, while the Arab world was at the lower end of the scale with about 3.7 per cent women members of parliament.

Therese Gastaut, Director of the Public Affairs Division of the Department of Public Information said that the Department had decided to cooperate with IPU in its endeavour because the poster served as an excellent publicity tool to remind the world that having women in decision-making positions was a crucial part of the Beijing Platform for Action.

In what manner and to what populations would the map be disseminated? a correspondent asked. Ms. King said that the maps would go to the United Nations Information Centres. The Division for the Advancement of Women also had a directory of national commissions for every country where there were women's orgnaizations. There were well over 150 such organizations. The maps would also go to all the United Nations agencies and to field offices of the United Nations Development Programme. The poster would also be available to the vast non- governmental community.

Ms. Gastaut said that 18,000 maps had been published in English and that it would be disseminated both by the United Nations and the IPU. The poster would be distributed to IPU's large membership, Ms. Heptulla said, and it would be available both at its coordination office in New York and at its head office in Geneva. Mr. Johnsson added that that map had also been published in French, Spanish and Arabic.

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Ms. King then noted that there had been some extraordinary growth figures of women in parliament in Africa. It was clear that the number of women in parliament did not necessary match the economic growth or size of the country. It also did not matter whether the country was in the North or the South.

A democracy did not have to be old and established to have more women participating in it, Ms. Heptulla explained. The newer democracies, such as South Africa, Namibia and Kenya, had more women in their parliaments. In South Africa, women headed both houses of parliament. In Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica and Spain women also headed both houses of parliaments. While those four Caribbean countries were small island States, women were more assertive there and had received better recognition as compared to some established countries. She felt that the newer democracies had grown accustomed to women in their political systems because of their participation in the freedom movements on those countries. Women in politics had nothing to do with the economic status of a country.

Mr. Johnsson said that three African countries, namely Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique, were way above others in terms of female representation, because they had gone through liberation struggles in which women had played an important role.

Was there a correspondence between women's literacy rates and the number of women in politics? a correspondent asked. Women in politics had nothing to do with either money or education, Ms. Heptulla said. Women in the United States for example were quite literate and educated, but not very well represented in government. The most important factor was a country's leadership and how seriously it took women. Women in India had been involved in the liberation movement well before India gained its freedom in 1947. Yet, the position of women had remained stationary, with only slight improvement, despite of the fact that five political parties were headed by women. Although the leadership in Africa was male, it was committed to women and often gave them decision-making positions.

On the issue of male leadership, Ms. King added that the countries that had made great progress had some kind of affirmative action which had been agreed to by that leadership, such as quotas and proportional representation. Higher levels of women in politics also had to do with greater knowledge and awareness of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. That Convention did state that certain measures should be taken until parity was reached. Once women were given the opportunity for equity, they brought new agendas to both parliaments and village councils. Where there was a critical mass of women in decision-making, there was also more concern for health programmes, pensions, access to medical care, housing and water, for example.

Ms. Heptulla explained that India had decided to amend its constitution to give 33 per cent representation at its grass-roots democracies and local bodies. By doing so, one million women were empowered at the grass-roots level. Now they were fighting for representation at the higher decision-making level. "These women were not necessarily literate women", she said. "They were educated by the experience of life so that they know the problems."

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Women were rarely given positions of prime minister or head of government, she added. Most often they were made ministers of social welfare, gender issues, health, labour and family. An exception was Mongolia, which had a female Foreign Minister. The mindset that women must be assigned to social welfare ministries needed to be changed.