On 5-6 December 2004 in Cairo, International IDEA co-hosted a regional workshop on “Enhancing Women’s Political Participation through Special Measures in the Arab Region”. Together with its partners – the United Nations Development Programme in Egypt, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Arab States Regional Office) and the National Council for Women, Egypt – the workshop provided a forum for Members of Parliament, activists and members of NGOs and the international community to discuss the participation of women in political life in the Arab World and exchange ideas and experiences on increasing their participation.
More than 100 women and men participated in the event, including experts and representatives from Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Farkhonda Hassan, Secretary-General of the National Council for Women in Egypt. Speakers also included two government Cabinet ministers: The Honourable Hawa Ahmed Youssouf, Minister of Women’s & Family Affairs from Djibouti and the Honourable Narmin Othman, Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iraq.
The aim of the workshop was to provide comparative information on the use of special measures, in the form of gender quotas, and to share experiences across the region on increasing women’s access to decision-making positions. According to Antonio Vigilante, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt, “Fixing a quota for women MPs is a common practice worldwide and has been successful in improving the place of women in politics. In recent years Arab countries have made strides to improve the situation of women in society. Institutions such as the Egyptian National Council for Women play a significant role in ensuring that policies’ accomplish women’s needs. However, social and cultural factors are still hindering Arab women from fully benefiting from their political rights.”
Different types of electoral quotas were highlighted and discussed, including the system of reserved seats for women and quotas adopted voluntarily by political parties. Participants noted the advantages of the legislated quotas as they are binding and effective when properly implemented. The nature of electoral systems were also debated - while proportional representation systems might enhance women’s chances of election, it was noted that changing to such systems may not solve the problem of representation as what is ultimately required is free competition in elections. Additionally, participants highlighted the importance of providing capacity reinforcement and working in partnership with men to work towards gender sensitive parliaments and the effective contribution of female legislators.
The outcome of this activity will be a report on the status of quota implementation in the region. In addition, the workshop will provide recommendations on how to advance women’s representation in Arab states by working with political parties, women’s organisations, international and regional organisations and other stakeholders.
This activity was part of a wider IDEA project on the use of quotas as a tool to increase the political participation of women. IDEA is collaborating with Stockholm University in a global research project that will lead to the production of comparative practical experiences on electoral quotas for women. The Cairo workshop was the last in the series of regional workshops that IDEA has convened on quota implementation. Four previous workshops were held in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. More information is available at www.quotaproject.org, or by contacting Goran Fejić.
