Gender-balanced representation in the Parliamentary Assembly

Gender-balanced representation in the Parliamentary Assembly

Doc. 9915

19 September 2003

Opinion[1]

Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men

Rapporteur: Mrs Zwerver, Netherlands, Socialist Group

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1. The Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men fully supports the report and the draft resolution presented by the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities. To emphasise the importance of immediate action by the national parliaments aimed at improvement of women’s representation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Committee proposes the following amendments:

II. Proposed amendments to the draft resolution included in Doc. 9870 tabled by the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities

Amendment A

In paragraph 3, add after the words “it is essential” the words:

”to introduce parity thresholds for candidates in elections at all levels and”.

Amendment B

After paragraph 7.iv, add a new sub-paragraph reading as follows:

“invites its members to support, at national level, the creation of a European Network of Women Parliamentarians, in order to elaborate general strategies on parity in decision-making and equal participation in political life.”

Amendment C

In paragraph 7.v.a., after the words “national delegations should include”, replace the rest of the sentence by:

“the under-represented sex at least in the same percentage as is present in their parliaments and in any case one representative of each sex.”

Amendment D

In paragraph 7.v.a., add a new sentence after “and in any case one woman.”, worded as follows:

“Single-sex delegations shall be inadmissible”.

Amendment E

In paragraph 7.v.b., replace the words “and should include at least one woman” with the words:

“and should include the under-represented sex at least in the same percentage as is present in their parliaments and in any case one representative of each sex.”

Amendment F:

Add, at the end of paragraph 8, the following words: “and that their effectiveness shall be reviewed by the Assembly in two years time.”

III. Explanatory memorandum by the Rapporteur, Mrs Zwerver
1. The Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men is very concerned by the increasing number of delegations with a very low representation of women and even delegations composed exclusively of male parliamentarians. Therefore, in 2001, I initiated a motion for a resolution on gender-balanced representation in the Assembly, which suggested several changes in the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure aimed at a better respect of the principle of gender equality in the work of the Assembly.

2. The Committee welcomes the draft resolution prepared by the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities and praises the work of Mrs Akgönenç, former Rapporteur and Mr Kroupa, who presents this report to the Assembly.

3. The report stresses a strong relationship between electoral systems and the number of women in parliaments. One of the main factors responsible for women’s increased representation in parliaments around the world in recent years has been the use of gender quotas. The introduction of voluntary gender quotas - when parties promise to ensure that a certain percentage of their legislative party group will be women, but no state sanctions are applied if their targets are not met, - has significantly increased women’s representation at both the federal and state levels in several European countries, such as Belgium, France and Germany.

4. The Recommendation Rec (2003) 3 of the Committee of Ministers on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision making invites member states to “consider adopting legislative reforms to introduce parity thresholds for candidates in election at local, regional, national and supra-national levels”. This is why the Committee is proposing Amendment A.

5 . The Assembly should also support the Committee of Ministers’ recommendation to create a European Network of Women Parliamentarians, which could be very helpful in the elaboration of general strategies on parity in decision-making and equal representation in political life. This is the reason for Amendment B.

6. Unfortunately, since the initiation of the motion for a resolution, the number of single gender delegations in the Parliamentary Assembly has increased. Six national parliamentary delegations include no women (Armenia, Ireland, Malta, San Marino, Slovenia and Ukraine).

7. There is one positive tendency in the percentage of women in the Parliamentary Assembly (see the appendix to Mr Kroupa’s report). In 19 of the total number of 45 delegations the percentage of women is equal or higher than in national parliaments. Therefore, it would be logical to oblige the rest of delegations where women are underrepresented to improve the situation immediately.

8. In amendment C, D and E the Committee proposes that the amended rules 6.2. and 7.1.b. should fully reflect the suggestions of the Committee on Rules and Procedure. I consider, in addition, that the Assembly should use gender-neutral language, i.e. use the term “under-represented sex”. Discrimination against men is no better than discrimination against women. Thus, single-sex delegations should be inadmissible, whether they are composed exclusively of men or of women.

9. The Committee fully supports the proposal addressed to the political groups of the Parliamentary Assembly to respect the principle of gender equality in the submission of candidates for the Bureau of Assembly committees. It also considers that national delegations should promote women to the highest positions of Chairpersons of delegations and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly, and that more women should also be appointed Rapporteurs. Parity representation in the decision-making organs and positions of the Assembly will contribute to the improvement of the functioning of the Assembly and will permit real qualitative progress to be made. I have listed the current situation of female under-representation in the Appendix to this opinion.

10. The Committee is convinced that to ensure the implementation of the recommendations proposed in this report the effectiveness of the Rules changes must be reviewed. The Committee supports the initiative of the Rapporteur to re-examine the situation of gender representation in the Parliamentary Assembly in two-year time and suggests Amendment F to this effect.

11. With the aim to support and promote the implementation of the proposed resolution, the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men could create a Sub-Committee, in January 2004, whose terms of reference would include the monitoring of the implementation of the adopted resolution, the organisation of awareness-raising-campaign during Assembly sessions on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making and other initiatives related to the situation in member-countries.

12. It is also important that the Bureau of the Assembly considers the task of gender-balanced representation in the Assembly as a priority item and accords the necessary financial resources to support awareness-raising-campaign among the Assembly delegations and political groups.

Appendix[2]

Role
Total
Male
Female

Chairpersons of Committees

10
6

(60%)
4

(40%)

Vice-chairpersons of Committees

30 (1 vacant)
18

(62%)
11

(38%)

Chairpersons of

Sub-Committees

26 (3 vacant)
18

(78%)
5

(22%)

Vice-Chairpersons of

Sub-Committees

26 (10 vacant)
12

(75%)
4

(25%)

Rapporteurs (for report)
134
102

(76%)
32

(24%)

Chairpersons of

national delegations

45
38

(84%)
7

(16%)

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[1] See Doc. 9870 of the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities

[2] The information listed here is taken from the Assembly List (edition June 2003) and the list of reports under preparation in the Committees of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (AS/Inf (2003) 4).