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Parliaments and Representatives

Democracy and the equal participation of men and women in the political arena are closely intertwined. No parliament or any decision-making body can claim to be representative without the participation of both men and women. As stated in the Universal Declaration on Democracy adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Member Parliaments in 1997, "The achievement of democracy presupposes a genuine partnership between men and women in the conduct of the affairs of society in which they work in equality and complementarity, drawing mutual enrichment from their differences."

Recent years have seen a steady increase in the number of women in parliament, though the world average of less than 17 percent remains far from the goal of parity between women and men. The election of women to the highest positions of state and government in several countries has also contributed to the changing face of politics.

While the road to election is a difficult one, the challenges for women do not stop there. Once women enter parliament or other bodies, they are faced with many new challenges. Parliament is traditionally a male-oriented domain where the rules and practices have been written by men. It is, therefore, an ongoing challenge to transform parliament into a gender-sensitive environment, to ensure that actions are gender-sensitive and to guarantee that gender is mainstreamed throughout the legislature.

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Women Members of the Constituent Assembly: A study on contribution of women in constitution making in Nepal

Cover art by Chirag Bandel

The election of 197 women to the Constituent Assembly of Nepal was a historic achievement and raised hopes with regard to ensuring gender equality in the constitution-building process. The elected women members comprise almost 33 per cent of the 601 members and include old-time politicians, women activists, professionals, former combatants and war widows.

This book presents the stories of the women Constituent Assembly members, which reflect their struggles, their hopes and their perseverance in struggling to bring equality to Nepali society. Their stories include journeys from battlefields to politics and from student politics to national politics, transformations from oppressed village girl to prominent politician, and life-long engagements in political movements, social work or professional life.

She and elections

Nazra for Feminist Studies (Nazra) released a report about mentoring* women candidates in the 2011-12 People’s Assembly Elections based on its observations of the electoral process and the experience of several women candidates.

Nazra reached these findings by supporting (16) women candidates for the People’s Assembly, either nominated on political party  lists or running as individual candidates, in eight governorates in Upper and Lower Egypt.

Nazra’s report, “She and Elections”, presents an overview of the general electoral climate and documents the experience of candidates in various phases of the elections, as well as the difficulties and challenges posed by the legal and political contexts.

Nazra for Feminist Studies will issue the final report after the conclusion of parliamentary elections, including elections for the Shura Council (Upper House of Parliament), which is still underway. Nazra will host a roundtable with successful women candidates, where they will discuss the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. The event will also witness the  screening of the documentary, “She and Elections,” which presents the women candidtes’  experiences of the elections.

A Practical Guide to Constitution Building

A Practical Guide to Constitution Building provides an essential foundation for understanding constitutions and constitution building. Full of world examples of ground-breaking agreements and innovative provisions adopted during processes of constitutional change, the Guide offers a wide range of examples of how constitutions develop and how their development can establish and entrench democratic values. Beyond comparative examples, the Guide contains in-depth analysis of key components of constitutions and the forces of change that shape them.

Chapter 2 includes a section on "Principles related to gender" and Chapter 3 includes a section on "The rights of women".

Consolidated Response on Experiences in Implementing Parity Laws to Improve Women's Political Representation

The adoption of the parity law in Senegal is an important step on the way to increased political participation and equal political representation of women.  Senegal’s women were rightfully proud of this landmark achievement, but other countries’ experiences with parity laws show that there is long road between the adoption of such laws and their effective implementation. 

This consolidated response will detail how parity laws have been implemented elsewhere, what aspects of their implementation bring most difficulties, and how such potential stumbling blocks could be overcome.  It will focus in particular on current developments in the Arab states, where the recent revolutions have led to the revision of certain political and electoral systems.  

Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties

How women participate in political parties – and how those parties encourage and nurture women’s involvement and incorporate gender-equality issues – are key determinants of women’s political empowerment. They are also key to ensuring gender-equality issues are addressed in the wider society. If strategies to promote women’s involvement in the political process are to be effective, they should be linked to steps parties can take across the specific phases of the electoral cycle – the preelectoral, electoral and post-electoral phases – and to the organization and financing of the parties themselves. 
 
The most effective strategies to increase women’s participation in political parties combine reforms to political institutions with targeted support to women party activists within and outside party structures, women candidates and elected officials. These strategies require the cooperation of a variety of actors and political parties from across the political spectrum.
 
The Guide identifies targeted interventions that political parties can take to empower women. It is structured according to four phases, following an electoral cycle approach.

The WCRO/WILP Gender Jurisprudence Collections

The Gender Jurisprudence Collections (GJC) includes judgments, decisions, orders, and other documents relating to the treatment of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) issued by eleven of the international/ized courts and tribunals included in the WCRO’s broader Jurisprudence Collections. It does not include submissions by the parties and others involved in the cases. Although you may conduct a general search of the WCRO Jurisprudence Collections, the GJC allows researchers to search the jurisprudence solely for documents containing gender-specific issues and keywords. This jurisprudence has been catalogued and coded based on a review of the documents for any SGBV issues, eliminating the need for researchers to sift through irrelevant documents when conducting a search for these issues within the international/ized courts and tribunals. You may search one tribunal, or you may search across several tribunals.

Support for Local Government: Policies, Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming - DGTTF Southern-Sudan

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 created the new autonomous Government of Southern Sudan [GoSS]. The GoSS was required to establish in-stitutions and processes of governance including at the local level, with no pre-vious experience in government and in an environment characterized by the tribal nature of its traditional social or-ganization, identity and culture.

This document details the DGTTF projects launched in South-Sudan, including Project II: Strategy for mainstreaming gender em-powerment in local government.  

MPs Online: Connecting with Constituents

The report provides recommendations for MPs, constituents and for Parliament.  Primary amongst these are that MPs need to develop a policy for the use of email and strategies for digital media that define the target audience and connect with their offline strategy. Constituents benefit when MPs are online and so citizens are encouraged to promote the internet and provide examples of good practice to break down barriers amongst those MPs who are more resistant. In the digital age democracy can be driven by both sides. Finally, the report recommends a review of the licensing and re-use of content created by Parliament.

Sierra Leone Query: Experiences with Sequencing PAR Reforms and Electoral Cycles

This report aims to assist UNDP/Sierra Leone in formulating strategies to reform different aspects of civil service, as it heads into upcoming elections. It begins with a discussion of the types of civil service reforms that may be useful, and methods of implementation. It was difficult to find examples of experiences correlating PAR reforms and electoral cycles.  However, we did find examples of reform programmes from a number of countries.  These programmes tend to be implemented over a minimum of four (4) years; at which time the country has often undergone some type of major election.  

The overwhelming trend across the international reports found seems to point towards avoiding election times when it comes to civil service reforms. Reforms in other countries have begun either before or after elections, but do not tend to be heavily implemented during election time frames. Although civil service reform is the main topic of the report, it would be difficult to have meaningful reforms without legitimate leadership, chosen through democratic elections. Because of the difficulty in maintaining fair elections in the past, it seems that electoral reform is a necessary precursor to civil service reform, especially given the temporal proximity of the next elections.

The report concludes with observations and questions for further study, which may aid UNDP/Sierra Leone as it attempts to reform civil service and public sector laws, while anticipating upcoming elections.

Parliamentary Oversight of Gender Equality

This handbook is designed to assist parliamentarians in carrying out their oversight role on gender by developing a better understanding of the concept, providing a summary of the budget cycle process, discussing gender budgeting, and examining the gender dimensions of parliamentary committees, as well as suggestions for changing attitudes as a strategy for achieving gender equality.