Liberal International
co-hosted a side event to the United Nations 59th Session of the Commission on
the Status of Women in New York together with UN Watch and the International
Network of Liberal Women, INLW on March the 11th. The topic was achieving gender
equality and the empowerment of women.
The main speakers
included Ms. Viktoria Saxby, Political Advisor on Gender Equality for The
Center Women of Sweden, and deputy member of The International Committé of The
Center Party, Members of Liberal International, as well as Ms. Yaya Fanta Kaba
Fofana, Director for Gender Equality of the Ivorian Ministry for Family, Women
and Child of the Ivory Coast, and Vice President of the INLW. The seminar was
moderated by Mrs Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk, President of International
Network of Liberal Women.
The aim of the event
was to address the gaps in the advancement and promotion of women´s rights in
our respective home countries - and worldwide - and lift good practices,
practical examples and concrete proposals of how we are working to address
those gaps both on a national and international level. Also, we wished to
address the role international organisations like the United Nations, and
political federations like Liberal International, and Liberal political parties
and UN Watch could play in order to assist in resolving these challenges.
Ms. Yaya Fanta Koba
Fofana told the audience of how, when she first approached the men in power
regarding the lack of women on the nomination lists for the election - they
answered that this was because there were no competent women, and because women
did not show up to run for office. She then proceeded to put together a book -
a data base - of qualified women. The result: for the next election, there were
30 percent women on the nomination lists.
Ms. Koba Fofana
emphasized the need for more women in high positions and high offices. She
lamented the fact that she has been attending women conferences for over 20
years - with the same goals and the same rethoric, but that not much happens in
practice. She believes that the reason for this is that not enough women are in
the high positions that will in fact implement these changes. Therefore, the
room cheered when a young woman from the Ivory Coast spoke out to say that she
was now in the United States to study - and that her goal was to become nothing
less than the future President of The Ivory Coast.
Ms. Viktoria Saxby
spoke about the similarities in the rhetoric of “no competent women” that we
unfortunately still see also in Sweden. Although the representation within
politics is fairly good in Sweden now, we still have the same discussions about
a lack of competent women when it comes to the company boards or higher
leadership positions in public and private companies and the business world.
She also spoke on the
importance of further collaborations between politics and the civil society, to
always bring up the human rights aspect of gender equality, and in order to
move the positions forward more rapidly, the need to further include men and
boys in the discussion of women´s rights and gender equality.
Ms. Saxby then addressed
the work that International Network of Liberal Women, The Center Women of
Sweden, The ALDE-group of the European Parliament where The Center Party is a
member, and Liberal International are now doing to call for the globalisation
of the Istanbul Convention on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence
against Women and Domestic Violence.
The Istanbul
Convention is a powerful tool which cannot remain simply at the disposal of
member states of the Council of Europe as it is currently the only human rights
legal instrument addressing violence against women both as a human rights
violation and a form of discrimination - and puts more demands on governments
to monitor.
Mrs May Sing Yang from
DPP in Taiwan and Vice President of INLW also gave an insight of the situation
in Taiwan and the succesful use of quota's to highten the participation of
women on political lists. The percentage of women candidates went up from 25%,
to 30% and now it is even 50%!
Further, there were
many questions from the audience members ranging on issues from the Swedish Sex
Buyers´Law, how to engage men and boys for gender equality, how to organise and
empower women practically, how to better implement laws and UNSCR 1325 and stop
the sexual violence of girls in conflict zones, what women in the developing
countries need in terms of help and support in training for running for
political office, mobilise resources and capacity building.
The seminar had a very
lively discussion with big participation of audience members, with questions
and remarks from every continent and many countries, including but not limited
to, Nepal, the US, Zimbabwe, The Ivory Coast, Sweden, Australia, Norway, Taiwan,
The Netherlands, South Africa, Cambodia and many more.
There was a consensus
that boys and men need to be further engaged in women´s and girls´rights, and
that although there are some traditional and extremists forces emerging that
are pushing back women´s rights, there are also more men getting engaged for a
change.
Two steps forward, and
one back, but slowly we are moving forward - towards a world where everyone -
regardless of gender, will be able to enjoy their full human rights and equal
representation.
One quote that was
mentioned by Ms. Saxby, was a quote from the US Activist Gloria Steinem who
said “The human race is like a bird with two wings. When one is broken no one
will fly.” Indeed, gender equality is not a choice, but a requirement for our joint
sustainable development. To get there, we must walk the path together.
Margaret de Vos van Steenwijk and Lysebeth van
Valkenburg, International Network of Liberal Women, member of WO=MEN Dutch
Gender Platform
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