Women in Politics: Is Democracy Delivering?
When
Where
Organized by
In a nutshell:
We live at a crucial time to ask: “Is democracy delivering for women?”
In the context of the 2024 International Day of Democracy, ODIHR and UN Women join forces to discuss this and related questions.
Topic:
"Women in Politics: Is Democracy Delivering? Ensuring Democracy and Its Institutions Deliver for All Women and Men"
Questions for discussion:
- What are the strategies and actions to further advance women’s representation in political parties, parliaments and governments?
- How can the pushback to gender equality and its impact on women’s rights be countered?
- How can we ensure the sustainable delivery by parliaments and governments on gender equality commitments?
Speakers:
- Biljana Đorđević, University Professor, and MP, National Assembly of Serbia
- Fatim Diarra, President of the Feminist Association Unioni, and MP, Parliament of Finland
- Rachel Weston Eschenbacher, Regional Policy Specialist, UN Women ECARO
- Roman Kuhar, Professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Moderator:
Saša Gavrić, Gender Adviser, ODIHR
Closing remarks:
Yulia Netesova, Chief of Democratic Governance and Gender Unit, ODIHR
Watch the recording:
The live event took place on 18 September at 11 am CET.
You can watch the recording below.
Background:
This year, 2024, is being hailed as a banner year for the number of elections taking place around the world. Millions of young women and men have or will be able to cast their vote for the first time, impacting the future of representative democracies. This process is accompanied by diverse hopes and concerns about democratic outcomes. One open question is the extent to which this year will create momentum to significantly address the underrepresentation of women in both parliaments and governments in the OSCE space - North America, Europe and Central Asia.
Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, which identified “women in power and decision-making” as one of its twelve priority areas of concern. It also emphasised that "women’s equal participation in political life plays a pivotal role in the general process of the advancement of women (...), a necessary condition for women's interests to be taken into account." Regrettably, in 2024, male over-representation remains significant, with women making up only 31.5 per cent of parliamentarians in the 56 national parliaments of the OSCE space. In the past five years, the growth of women’s representation in the region has stagnated. Furthermore, pushback on gender equality has impacted legal and policy reforms in some States by questioning the core premise of gender equality: women’s and men’s full equality, the freedom of women to make independent decisions and live a life free of oppression and violence.