PRESS CONFERENCE BY PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR GLOBAL ACTION

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR GLOBAL ACTION

During the 1995 Beijing process, much of the gender equality debate had focused on achieving a more equitable distribution of job opportunities for women in the political arena, but now that women were represented in greater numbers in politics, what was the next step? asked Shazia Z. Rafi, Secretary-General of Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA), at a Headquarters’ press conference this afternoon. It was time to consider the unique issues and challenges that confronted women once they were in power.

Ms. Rafi was joined by Maj Britt Theorin and Yousriya Loza Sawiris to announce "Women in Power", a programme of activities co-sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)to be held tomorrow.

Nearly one hundred legislators from around the world would be on hand to assess the challenges faced by women in positions of decision-making authority, as well as to examine measures women legislators were taking to ensure that women continue to enter the ranks of politics, Ms. Rafi said. "We will also be examining how this pilot generation of women has fared on a personal level and what they might do at the legislative level to make things easier for the next generation of women in politics."

Ms. Rafi said the "Women in Power" programme would take place tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The six sessions, on topics that ranged from "Politics, Power and Gender", to "Social Development and Gender", would be split between the United Nations Secretariat building and the Gernman Mission of the United Nations. The day's agenda would also include a formal launch of PGA's Women in Power Network to encourage and facilitate communication between PGA women leaders regionally and internationally. The PGA would also launch its Web site, which would be an online legislative information centre that would feature legislation related to and put forward by women.

"It is due time for us to discuss the particular role women have to play in the political arena", Ms. Theorin said. While it had taken women a long time to achieve some successes, there were important lessons that could be learned from the experiences of women in the international community. South Africa, for example, had done an excellent job in placing women in parliamentary positions. Sweden, Ms. Theorin's native country, had also been sucessful, and now had 44 per cent women in Parliament and 52 per cent women in Government.

"It was really tough work achiveing these levels of representation", she said, "but we had the help of other women inside and outside the political arena, who were tired of the status quo". Those women had threatened to start their own political party and that idea had frightend traditional legislators into making a change.

Egypt had also conducted a pilot programme aimed at increasing the number of women in positions of political authority, Ms. Sawiris said. The country had formed a new National Committee for Women. "This in itself could be considered a

Parliamentarians Press Conference - 2 - 8 June 2000

power", she added, "because it will follow up on all the country's legislation and policies as they relate to equal opportunity for women".

It was also important to note that the French Government had introduced a bill that required that at least 40 per cent of political positions, at all levels, be filled by women for the next elections. "This is interesting", Ms. Theorin said, "because political differences disappear when women fight for their rights and positions". This was as it should be. "Since we are half of the population", she continued, "why shouldn't we have half of the power?"

A correspondent asked about the achievements of the PGA -- what had the organization done to increase the visibility of women in parliaments? The PGA had established it's women's network in preparation for the Beijing Conference in 1994, Ms. Rafi said. At that time, membership had been only 11 per cent women. Now, it was more than 29 per cent. Since then, the organization had been working to not only increase the numbers, but also the actual profile and effectiveness of women once they were in parliament.

"The numbers have come up slowly, from 11 per cent worldwide to 13 per cent", she continued. This was mainly due to financial and personal hurdles that women faced. At this point, the women's network with the PGA would focus its efforts on measuring women's achievements once they were in parliament. To that end, the PGA had established a bulletin to identify what legislation had been put forth by women parliamentarians.

"It is also important to note that before the PGA started to preach the advancement of women to the outside world, it decided to take that step on the inside", Ms. Rafi said. In that regard, the PGA had been the first worldwide parliamentary organization to appoint a woman Secretary-General. An even more courageous act had been to institute a gender policy for the election of its board members. At present, the board was 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women.

* *** *