Guyana calls for gender parity in Parliaments
Guyana has called on the international community to ensure that there is gender parity in Parliament, in government and indeed, at every level of public decision-making, saying that it is certainly, a sine qua non of democracy, social progress, justice and peace.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, addressing the 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, warned that without these measures “comes dictatorship, stagnation, violence and anarchy”.
The meeting is taking place under the theme “Gender Equality and Gender Sensitive Parliaments as drivers for a more resilient and peaceful world,” Nandlall said that the Guyana government ’supports equality and equal treatment in all its facets and across every sector of society.
“Concomitantly, we eschew and strike down the scourge of discrimination whenever it raises its ugly head in any form or fashion. Naturally, therefore, we embrace the thematic objective of this conference, and we pledge our unwavering support to the IPU Assembly as it strives to prosecute this noble ideal.”
Nandlall said inequality in any form, including gender inequality, is the very anthesis of justice, warning that “without justice, there can be peace nowhere.
“The theme of this conference, therefore, requires no underscoring on my part. It sells itself,” he said, adding that although gender equality is entrenched in the Charter of the United Nations and forms part of the fundamental guarantees of governing instruments of similar organisations across the globe, “the reality paints a starkly different picture, in particular, as it relates to the membership of Parliaments around the world”.
He noted, for example, only three in 193 countries surveyed have 50 per cent or more female membership in their Parliaments, and 143 countries have below 30 per cent of female membership. Still, yet, several countries have no women representation in their parliaments.
“These are staggering statistics in a world where the female gender outnumbers the male. Women are the source of life and the reason for our existence. We are all nurtured and groomed by women. It is said that the housewife of the average worker, in a world of the rising cost of living but stagnant wages, is the world’s greatest economist. Women have repeatedly shown in almost every area of human endeavour that they are equal to men.”
Nandlall said there is no rational basis for resisting greater gender balance in Parliaments. To do so, we are not only being unfair to women, but we are short-changing ourselves and undermining human progress as a whole.”
He said it is no coincidence that Rwanda, the country in the world with the highest number of women in its Parliament – that is, over 60 per cent – is not only the fastest growing economy on the continent of Africa but, indeed, in the world.
“So, colleagues, we have much more work to do. A good start is to push for legislation to be implemented in member states that would engender greater gender parity in their Parliaments. At the same time, we continue to canvass for the removal of all institutional and systematic structures, legislation, policies and programmes which perpetuate gender inequality across the States’ apparatus. “
He said Guyana began this process a long time ago, but admittedly, it remains a work in progress. “Today, one-third of Guyana’s Parliamentarians are women. It is a requirement by law that one-third of the list of candidates contesting the General Elections must be women.
“By our Constitution, the supreme law of Guyana, the State guarantees to every citizen equal treatment and protection against discrimination, as fundamental rights and freedoms. We have broad-based commissions established by the Constitution, such as the Women and Gender Equality Commission and the Rights of the Child Commission, designed to promote issues such as gender parity and to preserve and protect the rights of women and children.”
Nandlall said Guyana has a strong network of legislation, policies and programmes that outlaw gender and other forms of discrimination and which protect women and children from ills such as sexual abuse, domestic violence and trafficking in persons as well as human trafficking.
“In short, we are playing our small part, and I wish to assure this Assembly that it has a willing partner in Guyana, and I daresay the entire Caribbean region,” he added.
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