UNDP and USP to Mark Long Term Agreement

UNDP and USP to Mark Long Term Agreement with Panel Discussion on Women in Parliament
04 March 2011

[Suva, March 4] The University of the South Pacific (USP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will launch a long term partnership and mark the occasion with a panel discussion on increasing women’s participation in Pacific Parliaments.

The launch of the memorandum of understanding and the panel discussion will take place on March 8, which also marks the 100th anniversary of the International Women’s Day.

The Vice Chancellor and President of USP, Professor Rajesh Chandra and Toily Kurbanov, the UNDP Resident Representative a.i will speak at the launch about the importance of the partnership between UNDP and USP.

This will be followed by a panel discussion on the topic “Temporary Special Measures: a Priority for Increasing the number of Women in Pacific Parliaments”. The speakers at the panel discussion are Lord Tui’afitu, the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga and Priscilla Naidu Singh, a former town councilor and a candidate in Fiji’s national elections in 1999
The Pacific is lagging behind other parts of the world in women’s representation in Parliament. As of December 2010, women accounted for 19.2 percent of seats in national assemblies around the world, far from the target of 30 percent reiterated in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995. Currently, Pacific Parliaments are composed of 5.3 % of women parliamentarians.

Article 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women – which has beenratified by every Pacific Island Government except Nauru, Palau and Tonga – specifically recognises that temporary special measures may need to be implemented in the short-term to advance women’s equality.The term “temporary special measures” is used to describe affirmative action policies and strategies to promote equality and empower women. Temporary special measures can be used as a short-term measure to “kickstart” an increase in women’s representation, while longer-term efforts are being made to create a more sustainable, level playing field for women in politics. There are two main types of temporary special measures which have been utilised globally to promote women’s representation: reserved seat quotas; and political party or candidate quotas.

The panel discussion will cover views of why temporary special measures should or should not be implemented in the Pacific.

ENDS

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