Legislative Quotas for Women: A global and ... - Aurat Foundation

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in and its impact on political decision-making structures. Thecommitment to ensure the equal participation of women and men inpolitical sphere has also been vividly expressed in the 1979 Conventionon the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women,CEDAW, which has received near universal endorsement.The FourthUnited Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China inSeptember 1995 was a major milestone as far as the realisation ofwomen’s rights is concerned. The Beijing Platform for Action calledupon the governments to take measures for ensuring women’s equalaccess to, and full participation in, power structures and decision-makingbodies, and to set specific targets and implement measures to increasesubstantially the number of women, among other means through positiveaction.In 2000, the United Nations also recognized the central role of women indevelopment in the Millennium Development Goals, which has theempowerment of women as one of its measurable goals. The proportionof seats held by women in parliament is one of the key indicators inmeasuring progress in this regard. 5The inclusion of women in political decision making is not just aboutwomen’s right to equality and participation in the conduct of publicaffairs; it is also about using women’s resources and potential todetermine political and development priorities that benefit societies andthe global community, so it is not just a matter of right but getting it right,argues Anders B. Johnsson, Secretary General Inter-Parliamentary Unionin his Foreword to the IPU study “Equality in Politics: A Survey ofWomen and Men in Parliaments”. 6In her book, Engendering Democracy, Anne Phillips extends a number ofarguments in favour of women’s equal representation to men in thepolitical structures. She says that it is a matter of democratic justice, asdemocracy claims to recognise the human rights of all individuals andthis must necessarily include women. It is, therefore, a violation of humanrights, she concludes to exclude women from public life. Her other5 Equality in Politics, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 20086 Equality in Politics, Inter-Parliamentary Union, 20089
argument is that it is an immense waste of knowledge, wisdom and skillsto automatically exclude half the world’s population from the list ofeligible politicians, as women have a potentially vast and unique set ofattributes to contribute to the public sphere. She is also of the opinion thatwomen bring something distinctly different and unique to politicalpositions. Women are different and cannot be adequately represented bymales in creating a socially balanced political arena. She says thatwomen’s representation and inclusion of their perspectives andexperience into the decision-making process will inevitably lead tosolutions that are more viable and satisfy a broader range of society. Herfinal argument is that in a world still battling to attain social equalitybetween the genders, having women represent their communities ingovernment creates a vital role model for upcoming generations. 7These arguments have been summed up in a report of the InternationalIDEA project as follows:Women represent half of the population and have the right to halfof the seats (It is also referred to as the justice argument);Women have different experiences (biologically or sociallyconstructed) which should also be represented (It is known as theexperience argument);Women and men have partly conflicting interests and thus mencannot represent women (It is referred to as the interest groupargument).The importance of women politicians as role models that maypave the way for other women. 8However, in spite of this international attention women’s access toparliament has been described as “frustratingly slow and very oftendisappointing”. In 1975, women held 10.9 percent of all parliamentaryseats worldwide. After more than three decades of pledges, prescriptionsand persuasion, women occupy only 19 percent of all parliamentary seats7 http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com/political-representation-women8 The Implementation of Quotas for Women: The Indian Experience. InternationalIDEA, Stockholm, 200310
Page 2 and 3: Legislative Quotasfor WomenA Global
Page 4: Table of ContentsNo. Content Page12
Page 7: For some experts, types of electora
Page 13 and 14: The Beijing Platform for Action, ad
Page 15 and 16: it is argued, compensatory measures
Page 18 and 19: 2 The QuotasAs already stated in th
Page 20 and 21: acknowledged that the quota brought
Page 22 and 23: Gender quotas around the world 20Th
Page 24 and 25: Usually, this model has guaranteed
Page 26 and 27: Political Party Quotas are rules or
Page 28 and 29: 3 Reserved seats in PakistanHistori
Page 30 and 31: assemblies serving as electoral col
Page 32 and 33: elected in 1997; 2.4 in the Senate
Page 34 and 35: Ministry of Women’s Development o
Page 36: In the second general elections hel
Page 39 and 40: AfghanistanAfghanistan’s National
Page 41 and 42: legislation by the Parliament. The
Page 43 and 44: “Nothing in the world is perfect,
Page 45 and 46: Sri LankaSri Lanka’s unicameral H
Page 47 and 48: Quantum of representationThe women
Page 49 and 50: legitimacy of the system in its obs

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