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e held in April, some citizens decided to approachYasmina with an initiative that had never been seenin the country since its independence: a face-tofacedebate between the mayoral candidates in theCocody Commune. She set to work on this initiativeand on 15 April, the good news came: “Of the ninecandidates contacted, five have confirmed, andtwo are considering. The debate will take place onThursday the 18th, at 7 p.m. at the County Hall.”The news went viral: unprecedented citizenmobilisation was underway. The announcement received50 shares on Facebook alone. The #Cocodyhashtag on Twitter also came alive. A youth organisationvolunteered to offer free logistics services.Bloggers volunteered to live-tweet the debate, andan online TV service took up the challenge of livestreaming. The debate went well, and was followedby thousands online and via live streaming. Theensuing discussions and media coverage are stillflowing. It is expected that for the next electionsin Côte d’Ivoire, the town hall debate will becomemainstream.Bonjour to issuesThe “Non de Yasmina” debate has shone a spotlighton women’s rights issues as well as others. She herselfraised some of them. The biggest is the role ofthe legislator in the policy process. Among other issuesin her explanatory note on Facebook, Yasminareferred to her impression that due to party politics,parliament was being constrained by a situationwhere it may only serve to rubber stamp bills proposedby the executive.The other issue was the operationalisation oflaws that have already been adopted. Is it enoughto pass bills into law and not establish the frameworkfor their execution? How have laws that affectthe rights of women been tracked, monitored, evaluatedand reported? How is the country doing inrelation to laws that have been put in place: accessto education and health, female genital mutilation,domestic abuse, etc.?Widespread consultation on women’s rightslaws is also a challenge. It is not clear that there116 / Global Information Society Watch