PanArmenian News Network
July 30 3005
OSCE CONCERNED OVER INSUFFICIENT PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN WORK OF
SOUTH CAUCASUS PARLIAMENTS
30.07.2005 03:38
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The OSCE expresses concern over insufficient
participation of women in the work of Parliaments and national
delegations of the member states, including the South Caucasian
countries. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) special representative
Tone Tingsgard’s Gender Balance 2005 report, made public at the OSCE
PA official website, contains this provision. It noted the quantity
of women in the Azeri, Armenian and Georgian delegations to the OSCE
PA did not change significantly within the past 5 years. According to
the report the proportion of women and men in Azerbaijan’s delegation
to the OSCE PA was 1:5. The figure made 1:3 in Armenian delegation,
while 2:5 in the Georgian. «If governments have troubles finding
qualified candidate women, the OSCE PA national delegations can
assist them in the search and consideration of suiting ones,» the
report notes. At the same time the document analyzes the number of
women MPs in the South Caucasus parliaments. The figure makes 13 out
of 124 (10,5%) in Azerbaijan, 7 out of 131 (5,3 %) in Armenia, and 22
out of 235 (9,4%) in Georgia. Highest percentage of women MPs is in
the Parliaments of Sweden (45,3%), Norway (38,2%) and Finland
(37,5%). The report notes that the OSCE PA delegations should
encourage governments of their countries to increase the budget of
the OSCE Office of Gender Advisor in Vienna. The document clearly
shows that even in the OSCE – a human rights organization – situation
is unsatisfactory in many respects, reported Trend.