Gender on election agenda

19 October 2017, 12:00AM

Gender was on the agenda on Day 3 of the Commonwealth Election Professionals Pacific region workshop held this week at Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey’s Hotel.

Ofa-Ki-Levuka Guttenbeil Likiliki, Commonwealth Gender expert from Tonga, presented on Gender in the context of Elections.

“Gender is an important topic that everyone should look into more thoroughly when it comes to democracy and participation in Parliament, or participation in a democratic society, especially in the Pacific,” she said. 

“When we look at the Pacific, our statistics show us that our women have the lowest number of participation in Parliament when compared to the rest of the globe.

Other statistics, like violence against women, show us that some of our countries have some of the highest statistics of intimate partner violence compared to other countries around the world. 

“So when we talk about things like participation in a democratic society, and then we look at the way women are positioned in terms of other statistics, it’s so important that we get to talk about gender because that’s the only way we get to understand why women are finding it difficult to get into Parliament.

Having this discussion or dialogue on gender gives us the opportunity to look at the why, and then what is the solution.” 

The workshop ends tomorrow.

19 October 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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