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Resolution 1898 (2012) Final version
Political parties and women’s political representation
1. In Council of Europe member States,
women represent approximately 51% of the population and yet only
approximately 23% of members of national parliaments are women.
This average figure hides a huge gap between a handful of countries
in which women’s representation in parliament exceeds 40% (Andorra,
Finland, Netherlands, Sweden) and many more countries in which it
is under 20% (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro,
Romania, San Marino, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Turkey), or in some
cases even under 10% (Georgia, Hungary, Malta, Russian Federation,
Ukraine).
2. Although it is widely acknowledged that the low proportion
of women in parliament affects its representativeness, introducing
and implementing effective measures to redress this imbalance has
proved to be a major challenge.
3. Thirteen member States have tried to tackle it by introducing
in their electoral legislation the obligation for electoral lists
to include a minimum proportion of women (legislated quotas), a
measure that has been repeatedly supported by the Parliamentary
Assembly in numerous texts, including Resolution 1706 (2010) on increasing
women’s representation in politics through the electoral system.
4. In addition, many political parties from approximately 30
member States have voluntarily introduced gender quotas in order
to promote women’s chances of being elected, or other equivalent
tools such as “all-women lists”. Political parties have also resorted
to a wealth of other measures to ensure women’s active participation
in their internal structures, place them in positions of visibility
and responsibility and support their development.
5. The Assembly believes that, as key protagonists in pluralist
democracies, political parties have a decisive role to play in enhancing
women’s political representation: in addition to ensuring strict
compliance with electoral legislation, including on legislated quotas,
and introducing voluntary measures, they are well placed to promote
a change of culture conducive to gender equality in politics and
in society at large.
6. On the basis of the positive experience of some of them, the
Assembly recommends the following good practices to political parties
in Council of Europe member and observer States, as well as partners
for democracy:
6.1. introducing
a formal commitment to gender equality and gender mainstreaming
in their statute;
6.2. organising campaigns and activities to attract women’s
membership;
6.3. setting up women-only structures and allocating them with
adequate funding, and giving them control over how to spend it;
6.4. ensuring that party structures which select candidates
to stand for election are fully representative of society, and therefore
include a proportional presence of women;
6.5. ensuring maximum transparency in the procedure for the
selection of candidates to stand for election;
6.6. introducing a minimum quota of 40% of the under-represented
sex in their executive decision-making bodies at all levels;
6.7. in the case of proportional electoral systems, introducing
a minimum quota of 40% of the under-represented sex in the electoral
lists, accompanied by special gender safeguards as regards the ranking order
and the positions at the top of the list, preferably through a zipper-system;
6.8. in the case of majoritarian electoral systems, encouraging
the shortlisting of candidates of the under-represented gender,
if appropriate through “all-women shortlists” or priority lists
with an equal number of people of either sex;
6.9. setting up mentoring and training programmes to enhance
the capacity of talented women to take up positions of political
responsibility;
6.10. setting up training programmes to strengthen women’s media
skills and ensure that women members are given a fair chance to
speak on behalf of the party on a broad range of issues;
6.11. ensuring that, during electoral campaigns, the broadcasting
time allocated to the party is proportionally shared by women and
men candidates;
6.12. setting up measures to enable members to reconcile political
engagement and family commitments, for instance by providing free
childcare during important party events or during electoral campaigns,
and avoiding in so far as possible that party meetings take place
at unsociable hours;
6.13. setting up systems to regularly assess and discuss gender
distribution in political party structures and party mandates, for
instance by foreseeing that the party leader reports on this matter
on an annual basis;
6.14. trying to reach cross-party agreement on the need and
ways to enhance women’s participation and representation in politics.
7. Furthermore, the Assembly calls on member States to:
7.1. introduce legislation which
makes it possible for parties to resort to positive action in support
of the under-represented sex, also in the electoral field;
7.2. set up special financial allocations for political parties
which take positive action to promote women’s representation or
participation, such as the introduction of gender quotas;
7.3. introduce and consistently implement an effective system
of sanctions against political parties which do not comply with
gender-related legal obligations;
7.4. conduct an audit to assess to what extent the electoral
system is geared towards achieving gender equality;
7.5. widely publicise the “Guidelines on political party regulations”,
published in 2010 by the Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE/ODIHR) and the European Commission for Democracy through
Law (Venice Commission), which include examples of good practice
while reviewing the main human rights instruments relevant for the
issue of women’s political representation.
8. Recalling that women represent only 31% of its members and
that they are under-represented in all the main positions of responsibility
in the Assembly and its structures, the Assembly calls on its political
groups to:
8.1. take into account
gender distribution in the context of the negotiations for the allocation
of seats in committees’ bureaux and the appointment of candidates
to be put forward by the groups, so as to ensure that the overall
gender breakdown of committees’ bureaux includes 40% of the under-represented
sex, both among committee chairs and vice-chairs;
8.2. pay increased attention to gender distribution in relation
to all appointments/elections which take place within the groups,
for group, Assembly and committee positions, with a view to achieving
equal representation between women and men in all key positions
of responsibility;
8.3. ensure that the gender dimension is taken into account
in all group discussions (gender mainstreaming);
8.4. if they have not already done so, consider setting up
an all-women structure;
8.5. hold regular discussions on how to improve women’s participation
and representation in the work of the Assembly and its structures.
9. Finally, recalling its Resolution
1781 (2010) on a minimum of 30% of representatives of
the under-represented sex in Assembly national delegations, in which
it decided “to strengthen its dialogue with national parliaments
on this question” and considered that “awareness-raising activities
targeted at certain national delegations could also serve a useful
purpose”, the Assembly proposes to organise seminars on women’s political
representation for the parliaments of member States in which women’s
representation is below 10%.