What will it take to reach gender parity in
political participation in a post-COVID-19
world?
Tuesday 23 March 2021, virtual event
Geneva, 25 February 2021
Office of the
Secretary General
Dear Madam President,
Dear Mr. President,
The Parliamentary Meeting at the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of
Women will be held virtually, on 23 March 2021. It will be hosted by the Inter-
Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women (UN Women). The Meeting will contribute to the
Commission’s main theme,
Women's full and effective participation and decision-
making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender
equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
Key findings and
recommendations of the Parliamentary Meeting will also feed into contributions with a
gender equality perspective for the upcoming 142nd Assembly of the IPU (May 2021).
The theme of the Parliamentary Meeting is
“What will it take to reach gender parity
in political participation in a post-COVID-19 world”.
The Meeting will offer a
platform to take stock of recent developments in women’s participation in parliament,
explore the impact of COVID-19 on women’s access to parliament in 2020 and identify
priority parliamentary actions to further progress towards gender parity in political
participation.
The event will gather Members of Parliament from around the world to share good
practices on achieving and overcoming challenges to reaching gender parity in their
respective parliaments, especially in light of the gendered impacts of the pandemic.
The event aims to stimulate dialogue that can help scale up political will and
transformative actions towards gender parity in political participation. The Meeting will
furthermore provide an opportunity to contribute to the debates of the CSW.
I enclose the agenda of the meeting and other relevant documents, which are also
available at
https://www.ipu.org/event/what-will-it-take-reach-gender-parity-in-political-
participation-in-post-covid-19-world
.
I strongly encourage your Parliament to attend the IPU – UN Women Parliamentary
Meeting, in particular both male and female members of parliament, especially
chairpersons and members of gender equality, legal affairs or human rights
committees.
Yours sincerely,
Martin Chungong
Secretary General