Aunty Mau stands firm
Rwanda conference serious, she says
By Charles Pitt, Political Editor

Women’s Affairs Minister Ngamau Munokoa has scotched suggestions she stand down from the Women’s Parliamentary International Conference in Rwanda so a more junior, inexperienced backbench MP may attend.
The Minister told the Times on Friday that the conference is a “high level” one requiring the Cook Islands to be represented by a senior Cabinet member.
Only three women from the Pacific region have been invited. They are: Dame Carol Kidu, a Cabinet Minister from Papua New Guinea; Isabel Donald, from Vanuatu; and Aunty Mau.
THEME
The theme of the conference, which will be held from 22-23 February in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, is “Gender, Nation Building and Role of Parliaments.”
Rwanda now leads the world in terms of the number of women in parliament. Their representation is 48.8%.
The conference will be opened by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Four themes will be discussed
- Gender, nation building and role of parliaments,
- Gender based violence, an obstacle to development,
- Gender and economic social empowerment and
- Partnerships for nation building.
SPEAKERS
Other speakers include: Queen Rania Al-Abdulla, of Jordan, Speaker of the South African Parliament Baleka Mbete, President of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz, and the wife of the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Cherie Booth.
From the programme that the Times sighted, the conference is more than a regional “get to together.” The Cook Islands would clearly be doing the organisers a disservice by sending anyone other than a senior Cabinet member.

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