Скачать или смотреть Watch back; IWD 2022 Women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation in parliaments

This event will investigate the barriers to women’s political participation, and the actions necessary to ensure that women can participate fully and safely in political and parliamentary processes:

1) in the context of the Women, Peace and Security agenda; and
2) looking particularly at the violence that confronts women who participate in parliamentary processes.

Panelists include:
Chair:

Walt Kilroy, Member of the Oversight Group for Ireland’s third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security; Associate Director of DCU's Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction

Panel:
Ivana Bacik T.D.– Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality; T.D. for Dublin Bay South Constituency

Jennifer Carroll Mac Neill T.D., Member of the Oireachtas Committee on Gender Equality; T.D. for Dún Laoghaire Constituency

Zeina Hilal – Gender Programme lead, IPU

TBD

Around the world, violence against women parliamentarians persists in many forms, including physical and online abuse, harassment, assault and femicide. A 2016 Global Study found that over 80% of women members of parliament interviewed experienced psychological violence, with one in four being victims of physical violence; one in three subjected to economic violence; and one fifth experienced sexual violence connected to their work in parliament. As sexual and gender-based violence has increased with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, so too has harassment of women parliamentarians who have reported more than twice as much exposure to torture, ill-treatment and acts of violence than men.

Women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe political participation is one of the pillars of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, essential to achieving the objectives of Ireland’s third National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. Ireland advocates for authorities to ensure that women are empowered to participate in all aspects of life, free from the fear of reprisals, intimidation and violence. Political processes that fully facilitate women’s participation are a key catalyst to make such aims reality. As such, parliaments and electoral processes are essential to ensuring that the voices of women are heard and the issues they face are addressed.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) have developed a Plan of Action for Gender-sensitive Parliaments and have been working with regional and national parliamentary institutions to create gender-responsive environments conducive to the full, equal and meaningful and safe participation of women in political life. Guided by this plan, the Oireachtas published a report from its Forum on a Family Friendly and Inclusive Parliament, which included recommendations on combatting threats against, and harassment of, women parliamentarians.


Recognising the role of gender-based violence as a barrier to participation, IPU recently published their regional study on sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments in Africa, in collaboration with the African Parliamentary Union.


The panellists will share their experiences both as women who have participated in the parliamentary process across different contexts and from their work to create gender-inclusive and gender-friendly parliaments. These insights and comparisons will allow greater understanding of the root causes of harassment and violence against women in parliament, and the effectiveness of actions these women, and their respective institutions, have taken to combat such violence. Through this, we will better understand the steps necessary to end such violence and ensure women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe political participation.