Joint declaration of women parliamentarians calls for 30 per cent female representation in South-Eastern Europe parliaments
TIRANA, 27 October 2008 - Female parliamentarians from South-Eastern Europe issued a joint declaration on Saturday urging their respective parliaments and governments to adopt electoral codes that would be formulated in such a way that a representation of at least 30 per cent of seats for women candidates will be guaranteed in all Parliaments.
The women parliamentarians met in Tirana at the headquarters of the Albanian Assembly under the auspices of the Albanian Assembly Speaker Jozefina Topalli and the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, Ambassador Robert Bosch.
Participants said that democratic standards had to be observed in their countries to fully integrate into the Euro-Atlantic family, and that a higher female representation was just and fair for any democracy but will also contribute to increase both the qualitative as well as the representative level of parliaments within the region.
In the meeting, Speaker Topalli, stressed that fighting breast cancer, preventing domestic violence, and protecting children's rights, key issues addressed as well in her "Women for women" tour conducted in several cities with the broad participation of women, should be a key theme for every woman in Albania and in our region. "Women, who are successful in their own businesses and family, can successfully manage the decision making and the state," she declared.
Ambassador Bosch thanked the Speaker for hosting the event together with the OSCE Presence. "The encouraging signals received from the Albanian political class on this issue should now be firmly and irrevocably converted into actions to secure 30 per cent of the seats in the next Albanian Assembly for women. I will continue talks with Albanian political parties in order to see that the approved Electoral Code leads to a significant increase in the number of women elected representatives in the Assembly," he said.
With OSCE support, the parliamentarians decided to create the Forum of Women Parliamentarians in the Western Balkans for better co-operation and further empowerment of women in parliaments.