GENDER EQUALITY: MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH PARLIAMENT

New York, 1^st  March 2006

 

Deputy Doina DRETCANU

Romanian IPU Group

 

 

 

My colleague and I are representing the two Committees on Equal Opportunities in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies and Senate. We are very pleased to be here and to share with you some of our experience and thoughts.

 

We welcome IPU’s initiative to hold regular parliamentary meetings on the occasion of the sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. With the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians convening now only once a year, such gender-related parliamentary events provide an additional, most needed space for exchanges of opinions and best practices, and at the same time a valuable parliamentary input for the relevant UN debates.

 

Our Committees for equal opportunities were set up in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies as specialized permanent working bodies. They both include members representing all political parties, and their membership reflects the political configuration of the Chambers, as resulted from the elections.

 

As a general observation, we have to underline that the Committees’ main task is to streamline gender equality into domestic legislation, policies and programs, and to this end they exercise the usual legislative and oversight functions. At the same time, in partnership with civil society organizations, they develop various programs, some of which being designed to identify and remove obstacles that hinder women’s access to political life and to Parliament.

 

Since now, gender mainstreaming into the work of Parliament has not been an explicit responsibility of the Committees, although this goal is being promoted by their members and of course by many of our colleagues, as it transcends all political or committee affiliations. Under these circumstances, and in the absence of a women caucus as support mechanism for women parliamentarians, we have to say that we still lack a coherent, systematic approach in this area. But we are pleased to inform you that these very days, in the broader context of the revision of the parliamentary Standing Orders, our Committees are revising their own mandate, and gender-mainstreaming in Parliament is to become a key-area of responsibility. That is why today’s debate is very timely and extremely important for us, and we hope to learn as much as possible from the experience of our colleagues.

 

In terms of civil society contributions, our Committees cooperate closely with various NGOs and other civil society actors in many areas, including the promotion of a gender-balanced participation in the political life.

 

A project of relevance, whose National Director is one of our women colleagues, member of the Chamber of Deputies, was launched in March 2005 by the UNDP and is called An Integrated Approach to Gender Balanced Political Empowerment and Participation. It aims at strengthening women's leadership and at increasing their access to elected local or central bodies. The project has two components: media, on one hand, and Parliament and governance, on the other hand. It involves, among others, parliamentarians, both new and experienced ones, government officials, civil servants. Within its framework, two publications have been launched so far with the support of the Chamber of Deputies: a Brief guide for women and men politicians, and a leaflet to the attention of women, entitled You are a partner in the decision-making.  

           

Building on our experience as key-participants in this UNDP project and on the contents of its works so far, we would like to take this opportunity to put forward the proposal to hold within the IPU a gender-related debate focused on gender stereotypes in mass-media and advertising, their impact in the perception of women as potential decision-makers, and the role of Parliaments and their members in relation to these issues. 

 

Gender mainstreaming in Parliament is a long-term, ongoing activity encompassing various levels and structures, designed to address not only members of Parliament, but also the work of the parliamentary staff and the human resources policies. Therefore, in order to be successful, it requires a strategic approach.       In this connection and in the follow-up of the present meeting, we believe that the IPU is best placed to elaborate, in cooperation with the DAW, UNDP and other relevant actors that develop capacity-building programs in this area, a hand-book on gender mainstreaming in Parliament.

Needless to say that this would be a most valuable tool in our efforts to achieve gender equality in the functioning of our respective institutions.