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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".

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.

Gender analysis for development practice and organisational change

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Fri, 2011-06-17 08:20
2011-06-20 14:00
2011-07-01 22:00
US/Eastern
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City & Province/State: 
Norwich
Country: 
United Kingdom
Venue: 

University of East Anglia

Description: 

Build your knowledge about gender and gender analysis for development practice and organisational change. For more information, visit the AWID website


United Kingdom: Women and the coalition: Westminster culture

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2011-05-26 19:42

Summary: 

Gaffes are prompting female MPs to wonder if some equal opportunities training is in order. Coalition ministers keep on putting their foot in it. Among those facing accusations of sexism we've had David Cameron ("calm down dear"), David Willetts (blaming feminism for the lack of jobs for working men) and then Ken Clarke ("serious" rape). In each instance the government's defence was that they were misunderstood – by accident or design. But some of their female parliamentary colleagues are muttering that perhaps this male-dominated government needs some equal opportunities training.

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For more information, please visit: guardian.co.uk


United Kingdom: Call for action to increase number of women in devolved parliaments

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Tue, 2011-05-10 06:44

Summary: 

Campaigners demand reform of party selection procedures after last week's elections mostly failed to boost female representation. Equalities campaigners have called for dramatic reform of party selection procedures after the proportion of women elected to the UK's devolved legislatures was one of the lowest on record. Reform groups said the parties had to take positive action to increase the number of women in the Scottish parliament and the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies, as last week's elections justified their fears there would be no improvement on equal rights. 


 

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For more information, please visit: guardian.co.uk


Scotland: We women won some battles, but not the war

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Thu, 2011-05-05 02:01

Summary: 

Whoever wins or loses today’s Holyrood election, it is going to represent a shocking defeat for around half of Scotland’s population: women.

By tomorrow night the chronic minority status of women in politics will be confirmed by the smallest number of female MSPs since the dawn of devolution. Just 29% of the candidates are women and many are stuck in unwinnable constituencies or minority parties or buried far down regional lists. So the result may be little better than the 22% of seats taken by women in last year’s General Election, a tally that earns Westminster a puny 50th place in the world league table of women’s representation.

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For more information, please visit Herald Scotland.


UK: Women in politics: Progressive decline

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-05-02 01:26

Summary: 

This week could and should have marked a transformation in the politics of the United Kingdom. The elections to English councils, to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies, and above all the AV vote, taken together, add up to a Super Thursday.

It should also have been the moment when it became clear that women belonged at the heart of devolved politics. It could have been a truly progressive moment. The souring of the promise of electoral reform, and the probable demolition of a new politics, have many different sources – but both warn of the daunting conservatism of British political culture and its institutions.

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For more information, please visit The Guardian. 


United Kingdom: Female Lib Dem MPs 'face electoral wipeout'

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Mon, 2011-05-02 01:20

Summary: 

The Liberal Democrats face the prospect of having no female MPs after the next election if their current poll ratings continue, the Fabian Society says. The society, affiliated to the Labour party, suggests radical moves for the Lib Dems such as making former leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell offer their safe seats to female candidates to reverse the trend. Only seven of the 57 Lib Dem MPs are female and in the last couple of months the party has created a "leadership programme" to ensure more women and members of ethnic minorities become MPs. A list of 50 candidates – 50% of them women and 30% ethnic minority – will get strong support to stand for some of the party's safest seats.

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For more information, please visit: guardian.co.uk


UK: Female Lib Dem MPs 'face electoral wipeout'

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Tue, 2011-04-26 03:41

Summary: 

The Liberal Democrats face the prospect of having no female MPs after the next election if their current poll ratings continue, the Fabian Society says.

The society, affiliated to the Labour party, suggests radical moves for the Lib Dems such as making former leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell offer their safe seats to female candidates to reverse the trend.

Body: 

For more information, please visit The Guardian.


UNITED KINGDOM: Referendum

Submitted by iKNOW Politics on Tue, 2011-04-19 01:28
2011-05-05
Etc/GMT
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Country: 
UK
Description: 

At stake in this Referendum:

  • A referendum to adopt an alternative vote (AV) electoral system.

Description of government structure:

  • Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II 
  • Head of Government: Prime Minister David CAMERON **
  • Assembly: United Kingdom has a bicameral Parliament consisting of the House of Lords with 693 seats* and the House of Commons with 646 seats**.

* Heir Apparent Prince CHARLES (son of the queen, born 14 November 1948)

Description of electoral system:

  • The Queen is hereditary.
  • The Prime Minister is elected by parliament to serve a 5-year term.*
  • In the House of Lords, 526 members are appointed by the monarch and 92 members are hereditary *. In the House of Commons 659 members are elected by simple majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve 5-year terms.**

** Following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or the leader of the majority coalition is usually the prime minister.

* The Queen formally appoints life peers based on a recommendation from the Prime Minister. The right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords was ended in 1999 by the House of Lords Act. However, 92 members will remain until the next stage of the Lords reform process.

** Starting with the 2005 parliamentary term, the number of Scottish constituencies in the UK parliament was reduced by 13 to restore parity with English seats after the 1999 Scottish devolution. The House of Commons consequently shrank to 646 seats.

Main provisions in the Referendum:

  • A referendum to introduce an the alternative vote (AV) electoral system "At present, the UK uses the 'first past the post' system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the 'alternative vote' system be used instead?" 
    Welch description: Ar hyn o bryd, mae’r DU yn defnyddio’r system “y cyntaf i’r felin” i ethol ASau i Doe’r Cyffredin. A ddylid defnyddio’r system “pleidlais amgen” yn lle hynny?

 

Electoral Requirements

  • An absolute majority of voters must vote "Yes"

Population and number of registered voters:

  • Population: 61,113,205 (July 2009 est.)
  • Registered Voters: 45,315,669 ( 2009 )

For more information on the UK's electoral system, please visit the IFES Election Guide.

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