EUROPEAN WOMEN’S LOBBY STATEMENT TO THE 2006 UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
The European Women’s Lobby (EWL) is a
membership-based non governmental organisation that brings together over 4000
women’s organisations in Europe working together to promote equality between
women and men and to ensure that gender equality and women’s human rights are
taken into consideration in all European Union policies.
1. The
under representation of women in decision-making can be addressed only through
an integrated approach and partial/sectorial measures are not enough, the
pattern of whole social relations and structures requires examination and
transformation.
2. The UN and its Member States have made strong commitments in relation to promoting women in decision-making. Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women commits all States Parties to “take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life”. Its Article 4 states that the adoption of “temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination”. The Beijing Platform for Action provides for a complete set of actions on women in power and decision-making, including an attention to institutional mechanisms of exclusions, unequal power relations and discriminatory attitudes and practices.
3. EWL
stresses that a number of different mechanisms lead to the under-representation
of women in decision-making, including: 1) Women’s
economic subordination: economic, social and cultural resources are necessary to
attain decision-making positions; 2) Symbolic factors linked to gender roles:
decision-making is still seen as a male domain and the distribution of tasks
within the home continues to be gender-biased; 3) Electoral institutions, laws
and functioning: electoral systems, holding of several mandates, role of
political parties etc; 4) Economic and social structures, notably the lack
of affordable
services for the care of dependant persons create additional
barriers.
4. The complexity of the problem
therefore requires strong political will and a multifaceted-approach, involving
different actors.
5. EWL
therefore urges the UN and its Member States to implement a concerted action
plan involving different political fields and actors, in order to remove the
existing barriers and to move towards gender equality in decision-making in
all areas.
6. In
2005, men occupied 84% of parliamentary seats in the world and women only 16%.
Men therefore overwhelmingly dominate political decision-making, but also other
fields, such as decision-making in international institutions, in the economic,
social and financial areas as well as in conflict prevention and resolution
across the world.
7. Inequalities in decision-making are
a challenge for democracy, that is, democracy cannot be complete without the
equal participation of women in decision-making in all areas and at all levels.
The exclusion and discrimination mechanisms against women that are inherent to
political systems and social structures need to be eradicated in order to
achieve parity democracy and gender equality in decision-making. Political
parties in particular play a crucial role as gatekeepers in excluding women from
politics.
8. Parity is a strategy that aims at a
profound transformation in the functioning of our democracies. Parity democracy
implies the equal representation of women and men in decision-making positions.
It is based on the idea that the essence of humanity is its duality as it is
equally composed of women and men, and that both sexes should be represented
whenever decisions are made that affect their lives.
9. EWL therefore calls on the UN and
its Member States to adopt binding texts to ensure parity democracy and the
equal representation of women and men in elected and nominated bodies at all
levels of decision-making.
10. EWL
calls on Member States to take action (including financial sanctions) for
political parties to remove the obstacles to gender equality in decision-making,
which are due to political parties structures and
functioning.
11. EWL also calls on the UN and its
Member States to ensure a gender balance in all national delegations at
international level and to implement new mechanisms for delegations which do
not comprise a minimum number of representatives of each sex to be penalised,
for example through the removal of voting rights.
12. EWL has also launched a campaign
for the election of a woman as the next Secretary-General of the United Nations
in 2006 and urges Member States to
seek qualified women candidates with a strong record and commitment towards
global peace and security, human rights and women’s rights and to vote for a
woman during the elections.
13. Given
the different barriers that exclude women from full participation in
decision-making at all levels, it is the responsibility of society and of the
State to change the way politics and other social structures function. Quotas or
parity democracy are one way to compensate for the obstacles that women
face.
14. Different countries across the
world have used different strategies to advance, but the pace of progress needs
to be accelerated. In the last 15 years, 50 countries in the world have
introduced legal quotas. Thanks to quotas, some countries such as Rwanda, Costa
Rica or Mozambique do better than a number of European countries. This shows
that a fast-track approach to achieve the necessary step of a critical mass of
women in politics is possible.