Issues

Combating Trafficking in Persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians

Jointly produced by the IPU and UNODC, the Handbook on Combating Trafficking in Persons is intended to encourage parliamentarians to take an active part in stopping human trafficking. It contains a compilation of international laws and good practices developed to combat human trafficking. It offers guidance on how national legislation can be brought in line with international standards. It outlines measures to prevent commission of the crime of trafficking in persons, to prosecute offenders and to protect victims. It also contains advice on how to report on this crime and how to enlist civil society in the cause.

Tags:

Empowering Parliaments through the Use of ICTs

The study, published by the United Nations Development Programme, has developed an analytical framework that focuses on the three core functions of Parliaments - legislation, representation and oversight - and establishes links between them. It provides concrete examples of the importance of ICTs for the empowerment and increased credibility of parliamentary institutions.

Tags:

Assessing Legislation - A manual for legislators

It aims at providing the legislators with the necessary tools that would help them in assessing legislations and proposing them to promote social and democratic change in their countries. The guide highlights and discusses several important topics such as the role of the legislator in facilitating socio-political and economic change, the legislative theory, and the methodology for problem solving, in addition to assessing the technical sufficiency for the proposed law.

Tags:

A Parliamentarians’ Handbook on the Small Arms Issue

In a landmark step, parliamentarians from countries in Central, East and the Horn of Africa, gathering at a conference organised by UNDP and AWEPA on 26-28 November 2003, reached an agreement on a Plan of Action for parliamentarians, aimed at reducing the illicit distribution of small arms and light weapons. In this Mombasa Plan of Action, parliamentarians agreed to urge their governments to adjust national legislation to create more efficient control on small arms. This booklet is earmarked to be a practical handbook. It seeks to serve parliamentarians during their efforts to make further progress on the issue of small arms and light weapons. The booklet contains information on what has been achieved in Mombasa, introduces parliamentarians who are new to the issue to what it entails, and elaborates on what the problem of small arms means for African countries in Central, East- and the Horn of Africa. It also seeks to assess what these countries might contribute to solve the problem, in particular with regard to legislation.

Tags:

Enhancing Women’s Political Participation: A Policy Note for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

This Policy Note presents a set of pragmatic recommendations that will enable policy makers to enhance women’s political participation in the region. These measures are the product of six national roundtable discussions organized in 2008 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine as well as a regional conference in Turkey in December 2008. This Policy Note also presents the current status of, and opportunities for women’s participation in leadership and decision-making processes in the region. Based on the evidence and regional data collected and analysed, this Policy Note is for parliamentarians, government officials, legislators, political party members, civil society organizations working on enhancing women’s political participation and media with the recommended policy and action options in the following three areas:

1) Legal and institutional frameworks to promote women’s political participation;

2) Mechanisms and strategies to promote women’s political participation; and

3) Partnerships for women’s political participation: civil society organizations and the media.

Tags:

Women in Politics 2010 (Poster)

This poster-sized map is a "snapshot" of the presence of women in executive and legislative branches of government as of January 2010. The poster provides information on the percentage of women in ministerial ranks, women in parliaments and women in the highest decision-making bodies, as well as information on the ministerial portfolios held by women throughout the world.

Tags:

Nominating for Change: Strengthening Women's Position in Political Parties

This manual was prepared as a Training of Trainers tool to prepare participants to deliver workshops that help increase women’s skills to get themselves nominated by their political parties. The manual is organized into training sessions, with some sessions focusing on general training skills, while others are topic specific.

Tags:

Monitoring Electronic Technologies in Electoral Processes

This guide aims to increase the understanding of civic and political activists regarding what transparency measures to demand in establishing safeguards concerning electronic electoral technologies, as well as what skills their organizations will need to develop to verify the integrity of electronic electoral technologies. Specifically, it covers the types of technologies employed, the potential challenges for electoral integrity brought by such technologies, issues to consider in deciding whether to introduce electronic technologies and transparency that should be employed when electronic technologies are utilized.

Tags:

Insights into Gender Dynamics in Marginalised Urban Communities in Jordan

The Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) supported by Gender Social Fund and Canadian International Development Agency conducted a qualitative study researched gender relations in marginalized communities, using PEER, a participatory research method through which members of the target group (in this case poor and marginalized men and women) investigate the perceptions of their peers from within their own community.

Tags:

Gender in Local Government: A Sourcebook for Trainers

Local governments are increasingly realizing the importance and benefits of addressing gender equality and equity in their decision making, policies, programmes and services. Many are rising to the challenge.

This source book is intended to help improve understanding of the problems involved. It is designed as a companion to other UN-HABITAT training tools, providing local government trainers with the background and tested training methods they need to strengthen the gender dimension in their day-to-day training activities. The source book may also be usedd as a stand-alone tool, introducing local government policy-making and project implementation.

Tags:
Advanced Search