Dansk Interparlamentarisk Gruppes bestyrelse 2010-11 (1. samling)
IPU Alm.del Bilag 7
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Womenin Parliamentin 2010The Year in PerspectiveAt a GlanceIn 2010, there were renewals for 67 chambers in 48 countries. Half of these renewalsbrought more women into parliament. In one-fifth of the chambers women’s representationstayed the same as in the previous legislature. More worrying is that in 28.5% of casesfewer women made it to parliament.By the end of 2010 women held 19.1% of all parliamentary seats worldwide, an all-timehigh that confirms the pattern of slow progress over the past 15 years from a world averageof 13.1% in 2000. The number of chambers that have reached the UN target of 30% nowstands at 43, a slight drop from 2009. Sixty-two chambers remain below the 10% mark,and 10 chambers have no women at all.At the leadership level, two parliaments saw women speakers elected for the first time:Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania. Women account for 14.1% of presid-ing officers in parliament. Similarly, a number of countries appointed their first femalehead of state. Currently nine countries have elected women as head of state and 13 haveappointed a woman as head of government. However, the election of a women leaderdoes not necessarily equate with stronger representation of women in parliament, and inmany instances these countries (Brazil, for example) recorded slight setbacks.
HIGHLIGHTSGloballyThe world average for women in par-liament, in all chambers, is 19.1%. Itcontinues the recent pattern of smallbut significant gains: the average was13.1% in 2000 and 16.3% in 2005.Overall, progress is slow, even thoughmost elections in 2010 led to morewomen in parliament than in previouspolls.In 2010 ten chambers reached theUnited Nations target of 30% or morewomen members. There are now 43chambers worldwide that have metthis target.Ten of the chambers that had renewalsin 2010 finished up with 10% womenmembers or less. Five other chambersthat were renewed ended up with nowomen members.Quotas remain an effective way ofincreasing the number of women inpolitics.A key issue affecting women candidatesin the 2010 elections was the lack ofmedia coverage or of public appear-ances by women candidates.
Ten Chambers Reach 30% or More Women Members;Five Elect NoneThe number of chambers that have reached or exceeded in 2010 the target of 30% ofwomen members has grown in recent years. Six single/lower houses and four upper housesthat had renewals in 2010 appointed 30% or more women members. This means that thetotal number of chambers that have reached the target is 43. Three of the newly renewed
RegionallyThe average for the Arab Statesremained low despite advancementsin several countries, mainly due to theintroduction or strengthening of quotamechanisms.Northern European and Nordic countriesmaintained a relatively high percentageof women in lower houses: Belgiumwith 39.3%, the Netherlands with 40.7%and Sweden with 45%.No progress was made in the PacificIsland States: no women candidateswon seats in Nauru, the SolomonIslands, Tonga or Tuvalu.
Tanzanian women wait in a line to vote at a polling station oustide Dar Es Salaam. � ImageForum
Inter-Parliamentary Union
TABLE 1Parliamentary Renewals in 2010A. Progress and Setbacks of Women in Lower or SingleHouses of Parliament Renewed in 2010The figures show the percentage point difference betweenrenewals in 2010 compared with the previous legislature-20 -15 -10 -50 +5 +10 +15 +20 +25 +30 +35 +40
B. Women in Lower or Single Houses after ParliamentaryRenewals in 2010CountrySWEDENNETHERLANDSBELGIUMCOSTA RICAUNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIABURUNDITRINIDAD AND TOBAGOETHIOPIAAFGHANISTANSUDANIRAQAUSTRALIAKYRGYZSTANPHILIPPINESCZECH REPUBLICUNITED KINGDOMDOMINICAN REPUBLICTAJIKISTANLATVIAMAURITIUSREPUBLIC OF MOLDOVASAO TOME AND PRINCIPEVENEZUELAUNITED STATES OF AMERICABOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINAAZERBAIJANSLOVAKIASAINT VINCENT AND THEGRENADINESCOLOMBIAEGYPTTotalseats349150150573501064254724944632515012028020065018363100691015516543542125150211665122561205138651315225326401835502615Totalwomen15761592212634121526911482372862441433812191319102873720233166532135354411214100000Percentwomen45.0%40.7%39.3%38.6%36.0%32.1%28.6%27.8%27.7%25.6%25.2%24.7%23.3%22.1%22.0%22.0%20.8%19.0%19.0%18.8%18.8%18.2%17.0%16.8%16.7%16.0%15.3%14.3%12.7%12.7%12.5%10.8%9.8%9.1%8.6%6.7%5.3%4.3%2.5%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%0.0%QuotaYes*Yes*Yes**Yes**Yes*Yes**NoNoYes**Yes**Yes**Yes*Yes**Yes*Yes*Yes*Yes**NoNoNoNoNoNoNoYes**NoYes*NoNoYes**NoYes**NoYes*Yes**NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPESUDANEGYPTCZECH REPUBLICETHIOPIAUNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIAJORDANCOLOMBIAAZERBAIJANNETHERLANDSMADAGASCARBELGIUMBOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINAUNITED KINGDOMTRINIDAD AND TOBAGOPHILIPPINESMAURITIUSTAJIKISTANBURUNDIDOMINICAN REPUBLICSRI LANKAAFGHANISTANBAHRAINCOSTA RICALATVIANAURUQATARSAINT KITTS AND NEVISSOLOMON ISLANDSTUVALUBRAZILIRAQVENEZUELAUNITED STATES OF AMERICASLOVAKIAHUNGARYAUSTRALIAKYRGYZSTANSWEDENTONGASAINT VINCENT AND THEGRENADINESREPUBLIC OF MOLDOVASURINAMENo comparison possible for Myanmar.
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MADAGASCARJORDANSURINAMEHUNGARYBRAZILSAINT KITTS AND NEVISSRI LANKAMYANMARBAHRAINNAURUQATARSOLOMON ISLANDSTONGATUVALU**
One or more political party adopted a voluntary measure to increase the number of women candidatesLegislated candidate quota
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chambers have passed the 40% mark, bringing the numberof chambers with more than 40% of women members to 11.Some chambers are moving towards the 30% benchmarkafter small increases in the number of women members.Trinidad and Tobago, for example, is now at 28.6% (upfrom 26.8%). If these trends continue, many more cham-bers will meet the UN target in the next five years.Post-conflict states continue to make progress. Sevenchambers elected in 2010 more than 25% women andBurundi has two chambers with more than 30%. All ofthese states have legislated quotas.Ten renewed chambers have less than 10% women mem-bers; five others have no women members of parliamentat all. The Pacific region is home to four of the single-chamber countries with no women members, a clearsign that more needs to be done there to promote womenin parliament.
most political parties failed to fill their 25% womencandidate quota. The Independent High Electoral Com-mission of Iraq highlighted that action must be taken torectify the situation, but it has not provided any specificson doing so.Qatar was the only Arab country to appoint nowomen parliamentarians in 2010. Despite the fact thatofficially there is no legal impediment to women takingpart in politics, no woman has yet been appointed toparliament.
Americas Improve and Elect Three WomenHeads of StateIn the Americas, where 15 chambers were up for renewal,the average improved slightly and three more womenheads of state were elected. One such success occurred inCosta Rica, which maintained its impressive 38.6% ofwomen in parliament. The Costa Rican electoral codeprovides for a 40% quota for all women in public elections.In the two other states with new women leaders, Braziland Trinidad and Tobago, there was not much change,and even a slight decrease in Brazil’s lower house andTrinidad and Tobago’s upper house.The US mid-term elections witnessed a record numberof women running for the lower and upper houses ofCongress, but this did not translate into major gains. TheDemocrat Party fielded more than 70% of women candi-dates, but lost seats.
A Look at the RegionsArab States Lead on Progress Thanksto QuotasAlthough they are at the bottom of the world table interms of women’s representation in parliament, the ArabStates continue to advance: 4.3% in 1995 to 9.5% in 2009to 11.7% in 2010. The large variation in the percentages inthe region reflects the differences between countries withquotas and those without them.Resistance to the participation of women in politicswas evident in a number of the Arab States but it did notnecessarily reduce the number of women politicians. Onecandidate in Bahrain withdrew after her campaign tentwas burnt down, few women registered as candidates andonly one woman, who was unopposed, was elected. Thiscontrasts with the relatively high percentage of womenappointed to the upper house of Bahrain (22.5%).In Jordan, the quota system was strengthened, doublingthe number of seats previously reserved for women. Thereare now 13 women parliamentarians, including the firstwoman to be elected through direct competition—a riseof 4.5 percentage points. Jordan’s first Bedouin womanparliamentarian was also elected in 2010 under thequota system.Sudan saw its first woman run for the presidency,despite afatwaprohibiting women from running in elec-tions. The country’s lower house quota facilitated a gainof 10.9 percentage points.Egypt’s quota system of reserved seats for women,approved in 2009, resulted in an increase of 10.9 percent-age points, reaching 12.7% of women in parliament.In Iraq, although the number of women parliamentar-ians in the lower house rose, the overall proportion fellslightly with the addition of 50 more seats. In addition,
Nordic Countries: Swedish WomenLose SeatsThe Nordic countries maintained their position at thetop of the regional chart with a 41.6% average. Sweden’schamber was the only one to be renewed in this regionin 2010, and although it maintained an impressive 45%of women in parliament, it experienced a decrease of 2.3percentage points. This could be due to Sweden’s propor-tional electoral system, under which many of the smallerparties won one seat each, and the fact that many of theright-wing party lists are headed by men.
Little Change in EuropeThe European average remains stable at 20%. Most of the14 chambers being renewed saw little change, generallyless than three percentage points. The exception was theCzech Republic, which saw 6.5 and 3.7 percentage pointincreases in its lower and upper houses, respectively.Nevertheless, not one woman cabinet minister wasappointed in the Czech Republic.Neighbouring Slovakia elected its first woman primeminister, but there were slight decreases in terms of the
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number of women in parliament. Belgium’s renewalresulted in more women members, while the average inthe Netherlands increased to 40.7%.Despite an election law in Bosnia and Herzegovina thatspecifies that one in three candidates must be women,only 16.7% of members of parliament are women. This isan improvement, though: a rise of 2.4 percentage pointsas compared to the previous election in 2006.The UK’s lower house saw a 2.2 percentage point gain(up to 22%). However, given that women accounted for18% of parliamentarians in 1997, it is clear that moreneeds to be done to encourage a push towards parity.In Latvia the number of elected members of parlia-ment remained at 19%, although the number of womencandidates increased slightly in comparison to the 2006election. In its third election in two years, the Republicof Moldova elected six less women parliamentarians, adecline of 5.9 percentage points (down to 18.8%).Kyrgyzstan elected fewer women members than previ-ously, yet it still has one of the highest rates of womenparliamentarians in the sub-region. The country electedits first women president in 2010. Roza Otunbayeva is apioneer in this sub-region as she does not owe her positionto a dynastic succession.With a rise of 4.5 percentage points bringing women’srepresentation up to 22%, Uzbekistan is on track to reachthe 30% target in its lower house. The 2010 Senate renewalprocess resulted in a total of 15% of women representatives,possibly because political parties must nominate at least30% of women candidates.
A Similar Picture in Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa saw no significant change, althoughthere was good news on an individual country level asonly three chambers lost ground.Ethiopia, Madagascar and Tanzania for their partrecorded improvements.Burundi consolidated its achievement of 30% represen-tation of women in the lower house with an increase of2.5 percentage points to 32.1%, as well as a significant risein the upper house (to 46.3%), due to a considerable degreeto its quota system. A quota also was implemented forthe first time at the municipal level.Women’s representation in Sao Tome and Principeincreased from 7.3% in 2006 to 18.2% in 2010 withoutany quota being in place. Mauritius saw an increase inthe number of women candidates and a small gain in thenumber of women parliamentarians, up to 18.8%.
Asia Loses GroundAsia saw a slight decrease in the number of women par-liamentarians, with its average falling to 18% in a year ofhigh-profile elections in the region.International interest in Afghanistan’s polls was intenseas a record number of women candidates stood despite thekilling of five volunteers working for one of the womencandidates, incidents of harassment and the tearing downof election posters. In the end Afghanistan saw an increaseof just 0.4 points.The situation in Sri Lanka remained the same whilerenewals in India’s upper house produced 10.3% of women
TABLE 2World and Regional Averages of Women in Parliament, 1995 and 2010Situation for all chambers of parliaments combined in December of each yearWORLDNORDIC COUNTRIESAMERICASEUROPE(INCLUDING NORDIC COUNTRIES)EUROPE(EXCLUDING NORDIC COUNTRIES)SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAASIAPACIFICARAB STATES4.3%7.7%11.7%2010199510.7%19.2%9.8%18.0%13.2%14.8%22.5%12.7%21.4%13.2%20.0%19.1%11.3%41.6%36.4%
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parliamentarians, slightly less than the 10.8% in the lowerhouse in 2009. India’s upper house approved the Women’sReservation Bill in March 2010 (first tabled in 1996),under which one-third of legislative seats in the nationaland state legislative assemblies are reserved for women.The bill still has to be approved by the lower house and15 of India’s 28 states before it can become law. The debateignited by discussion of this controversial piece of legisla-tion shows that there is still a lot of disagreement on howto improve women’s participation in politics.In the Philippines, where there have been two womenpresidents in the past 25 years and the proportion ofwomen in government has increased every year, the figurefor women in the lower house rose by 1.7 percentage pointsto 22% while the upper house figure fell by 4.3 percentagepoints to 13%.
pation in politics, it will be interesting to see the results ofthe next election and gauge whether the reserved seat systemis the best way forward and whether or not it should beaccompanied by other support mechanisms for women.
Media Coverage of CandidatesMany factors continue to affect women’s participationin politics at the national parliamentary level, includingcultural and societal variables and access to financialresources.A key issue affecting women candidates in the 2010elections was the lack of media coverage of them or pub-lic appearances by women candidates. A survey of dailyelection stories in Tanzania revealed that men politiciansdominated as both subjects and sources of election stories.In Sudan, there were reports that women were losing out interms of media coverage, and in Bosnia and Herzegovinaa woman campaign worker complained that while photo-graphs of women candidates were common, their opinionswere rarely published. The election of Australia’s firstwoman prime minister, Julia Gillard, met with a mediafrenzy and a common focus on her flame-coloured hairand choice of attire. Attitudes were probably not greatlyadvanced by the production of the Czech Public AffairsParty’s racy calendar of women politicians.A number of women’s interest groups in the US decidedto take action on gender-biased reporting, setting up anorganization called ‘Name It. Change It’ to monitor sexistcoverage of women candidates in the press. On its websitethey cite media reports of weight loss by women candidatesand comments on their appearance. While such monitor-ing is a step in the right direction, more needs to be doneto combat the negative depiction of women in the mediaand to encourage the media to give women candidatesthe same amount of coverage as men.
Pacific Region Continues to ResistWomen MembersThe percentage of women parliamentarians in the PacificStates fell from 15.3% in 2009 to 11.7% in 2010. This figureis not a true regional average as Australia’s relatively highproportion of women members inflates the figure for otherstates that have few or none.Despite training and sensitisation initiatives on theneed to encourage women to participate in elections, ofthe five countries with renewals in 2010—Australia, Nauru,Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu—only Australiaelected any women parliamentarians, including its firstwoman prime minister.
Quotas: Update on ProgressQuotas remain the single most effective way of increasingthe number of women in politics. Five countries withlegislated quotas, Afghanistan, Brazil, Costa Rica, Iraqand Kyrgyzstan, remained stable or saw small declines intheir lower houses in 2010.Many countries that have no legislated quotas in thenational parliament have voluntary party quotas. Inaddition, there can be local-level quotas even when thereare none in the national parliament. This is the case inNamibia and the Philippines. The result is a greaternumber of leadership roles for women at different levelsof politics.Egypt’s 2010 election result raises questions about thereserved seats quota system. While it led to a 10.9 percent-age point increase in the number of women members, not asingle one was elected from outside the quota system. This isa setback as, previously, nine women had been elected toparliament through the normal electoral process. Given thatEgypt’s quota system is a temporary measure (due to expirein 2020) designed to ‘jumpstart’ a new era of female partici-
Training Women to Participatein ElectionsWhile quotas are an effective way to address under-representation of women in parliament, more training inhow to participate in elections is also necessary.Many countries that held polls in 2010 organizedworkshops to train women in how to participate in elec-tions and encourage them to run for seats. Vanuatu hostedworkshops for women from countries such as Nauru, theSolomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu and examined thebarriers preventing women from participating in elections.Women from political parties in Kyrgyzstan receivedtraining, and women candidates in Jordan were coachedin campaign strategy development, communications andelection-day campaigning.
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Women Presiding Officers in ParliamentSituation as of 1 January 2011:38 of the 269 Posts (14.1%)On 1 January 2011, women held 38 (14.1 %) of the 269 presidingofficer posts in parliaments around the world. This is morethan double the total for 2005 (18).The post is important as it is the highest position of powerin a parliament. Women are slowly making inroads in thisarea, which has historically been dominated by men.In 2010, two women took up presiding officer posts forthe first time in Mozambique and the United Republicof Tanzania.
FIGURE 1Trend in Women Presiding Officers, 1945–2011(January of each year)16%14%12%10%8%6%4%2%0%14.1%10.5%10.3%
A Kyrgyz couple are about to cast their votes. � ImageForum
7.2%2.3%0%19450%1955196519751.9%3.4%19851995200020052011
28 Presiding Officers in Single or Lower Housesof ParliamentAlbania (People’s Assembly); Antigua and Barbuda (House ofRepresentatives); Austria (Nationalrat); Bosnia and Herzegovina(House of Peoples); Botswana (National Assembly); Bulgaria(Naradno Schranie); Chile (Cámara de Diputados); CzechRepublic (Poslanecka Snemovna); Dominica (House of Assembly);Estonia (Riigikogu); Ghana (Parliament); Iceland (Althingi);India (Lok Sabha); Latvia (Saeima); Lesotho (National Assembly);Lithuania (Seimas); Mozambique (Assembleia da Republica);Netherlands (Tweede Kamer der Staten Generaal); Pakistan(National Assembly); Romania (Chamber of Deputies); Rwanda(Chamber of Deputies); Saint Lucia (House of Assembly);Serbia (Narodna Skupstina); Suriname (Nationale Assemblee);Turkmenistan (Mejlis); United Republic of Tanzania (Bunge);Uruguay (Cámara de Representantes); Uzbekistan (LegislativeChamber).
Suriname’s Ministry of Home Affairs convened a work-shop on quota policy and the participation of women indecision-making. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)in Slovakia, including professional women’s associations,ran campaigns to help women enter politics. NGOs inthe Czech Republic provided special training for womencandidates.Not all training led to greater participation or wins forwomen in elections in 2010. However, electoral processeducation is a long-term tool to empower women to par-ticipate in politics and hopefully increase the pool ofwomen candidates.� Inter-Parliamentary Union 2011ISSN 1993-5196Created in 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the inter-national organization that brings together the representatives ofparliaments of States. The IPU is the focal point for world-wideparliamentary dialogue and works for peace and cooperation amongpeoples with a view to strengthening representative institutions.

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10 Presiding Officers in Upper Houses of ParliamentAntigua and Barbuda (Senate); Bahamas (Senate); Belize(Senate); Gabon (Senate); Germany (Bundesrat); Grenada(Senate); Saint Lucia (Senate); Swaziland (Senate); UnitedKingdom (House of Lords); Zimbabwe (Senate).
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