Cook Islands Times Weekly | Issue 172 16 October 2006

More women sought in House
By Charles Pitt, Political Editor


Minister for Internal Affairs Ngamau
Munokoa (Aunty Mau) … attended
workshop

By 2015, nearly one-third of our MPs should be women. That’s at least eight women MPs in our parliament.
Strategies for achieving this were discussed at a recent workshop Minister for Internal Affairs Ngamau Munokoa (Aunty Mau) attended. Her ministry includes the women’s division.
The workshop was in Wellington, New Zealand, and attended by 20 women parliamentarians from Commonwealth countries in the Pacific.
They included Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands.
The workshop was named “A parliamentary perspective on gender equality in the Pacific region”. It was organised and funded by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). The Forum Secretariat was also represented.
The aim was to promote legislation and parliamentary processes that support gender equality, participation of women in parliamentary and other processes.
It was also to draw attention to the need to adhere to international treaties and obligations. These include CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).
Aunty Mau told the Times the Cook Islands must have eight women members of parliament by the year 2015 if it is to meet the Commonwealth’s target of 30 per cent women’s representation in decision making positions.
YOUTH
For her part, Aunty Mau is keen to get the youth involved in a practical, hands on way and will be promoting the holding of a “Youth Parliament.”
Youth from the outer islands would be involved and next year she believes the ideal time for such an exercise is just before parliament convenes.
Aunty Mau has submitted a report to Cabinet.
At present women comprise an average of only 4.5 per cent of national parliaments in the Pacific region, with the exception of New Zealand.
At the workshop, members agreed that recommendations contained in the final outcomes document of the “Regional workshop on advancing women’s representation in parliaments”, held in the Cook Islands in April 2006, be endorsed and progressed.
Members agreed that urgent action is needed to remove the barriers to participation and to create temporary “fast track” ways of reaching the target.
While the workshop identified and discussed a wide range of possible strategies, it was agreed that given the diversity in the region, each country needed to develop its own national strategy.
Some of the strategies discussed fell under the broad headings of;
- personal development-covering training/mentoring especially in schools,
- communications, including media training and liaison and networking,
- Data-encouraging collation and dissemination of statistics on women,
- political structures - to promote and support women and handle women’s issues,
- Policy - to ensure equity in opportunity and pay and access to the law and elimination of domestic violence.

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