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Title:    Regional Seminar “Women’s Participation in Local Politics”
Posting Date: 11/29/2006 2:35:15 AM

The regional seminar on “Women’s Participation in Local Politics”, took place from August 08-09, 2006 at Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh, the Kingdom of Cambodia. The seminar co-organized by of FES-Jakarta, CPWP and main organizer SILAKA.

The session was welcomed by Ms. Thida C. Khus, Executive Director of Silaka and Ms. Rina Julvianty, FES representative, Jakarta office. The session was opened by H.E. Mrs. Ho Naun, chairperson of 8th commission of Cambodian National Assembly and was closed by

H.E. Mrs. Khim Chamroeun, Secretary of State of Ministry of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia. There are 65 participants attend the seminar in the first day (August 08) and 53 participants attend in the second day (August 09, 2006). The participants came from government officials, national assembly member, women political leaders, LNGOs and INGOs staff, donors, researchers, experts, mass media and local politicians coming from Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Timor Leste, Thailand, India, Singapore and Cambodia.

Pictured by SILAKA

Background

With the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, 180 government committed themselves to gender equality. In the year 2005, only two countries, namely Sweden and Rwanda, have achieved equal participation in politics and decision-making. Worldwide, the representation of women in parliaments stands at about 15%. The political participation of women in Southeast Asia is even lower than the world average.

Involvement in local politics is, for many women, the most efficient possibility to positively influence and transform their immediate social and economic environment and improve the lives of their families and communities. It holds not longer true that women are not able to participate in politics due to their limited education and skills. There have been many efforts by civil society groups, governments and educational institutions in each of the countries as well as by international aid organizations to improve women’s access to education and training. These efforts already began to take effect. However, there are still many factors that negatively influence women’s decision to get involved in politics.

Even if women –overcoming those obstacles- decide to get involved in politics, their chances to get elected are much lower than those of their male counterparts. Prejudices against women in leadership position that is deeply rooted in most cultures, does not only influence voter’s decisions but also causes political parties to put women on the lower ranks of their party lists for the fear of loosing votes. That means, in turn, that even if women are able to gain strong support from voters, they won’t attain any office.

Objectives

1. Analyzing women’s role and women’s situation in local politics
2. Evaluating affirmative action measures for the promotion of women’s participation in local politics
3. Developing strategies to increase the number of women in local government positions as well as to promote gender-sensitive policies on local level.

Reported by SILAKA.
Download detail of report

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