Bahraini Women in Decision-Making Still Low Despite
Reforms
Bahrain Tribune - 11 May, 2007
Despite reforms, Bahraini women has little say in the
country’s political affairs, a top human rights activist said
yesterday. Bahrain Human Rights Society (BHRS) deputy secretary-general
Abdulla Alderazi said that women’s participation rate in the
decision-making levels in the government is just around seven to eight per
cent which is not a good indicator for a democratic country. “Reforms
are being done but the participation rate is very low – we have only one
female judge, two female ministers, one female MP and ten appointed Shura
members,” Alderazi told the Tribune. “That accounts for only about
seven or eight per cent if you would base it against the government
positions that require decision-making. There should be more considering
that women account for 49 per cent of this country’s population,” he
said. Alderazi spoke to the Tribune on the sidelines of a seminar on
“Women’s Participation in Public Affairs in the Gulf” at the Ramee
International Hotel. The seminar is being held by the International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) with Arab Institute for Human Rights
and the BHRS. The seminar culminates a fact-finding mission done in the
region by the FIDH in January this year where the institute gauged the
extent of women’s participation in the Gulf countries. “This initiative
represents an opportunity to evaluate the progress smade over the past
years in the region to seek new strategies to enhance the political,
social and economic empowerment of women,” said Marie Camberlin, FIDH
programme officer for the Middle East and North Africa. While the FIDH
is campaigning to prevent human rights violations, it is also implementing
a global programme to promote women’s rights. “Our activities focused
on a series of initiatives designed to significantly increase the
participation of women in decision-making processes and ensure the equal
representation in the management bodies of all our member organisations,”
Camberlin said. The FIDH currently unites 155 national human rights
organisations from all the continents. An important agenda in the
seminar, which will run for three days, is the call for the Gulf states to
ratify without reservations the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Bahrain is one of many countries
that ratified the CEDAW with reservations. The seminar is being
attended by some 40 representatives from different women’s and rights
organisations from Bahrain and around the Gulf. Bahrain’s low score in
women’s participation in public affairs is shared by most other GCC and
Arab countries. Best performers among Arab countries include Morocco, but
even their women’s participation rate in public affairs is just around ten
per
cent. |