PACE: Armenia is urged to increase the representation of women in the delegation

During the plenary session of the opening session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Dutch delegate Tinie Cox addressed praise to Albania, Andorra, Georgia, Iceland, Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, Norway, Luxembourg mentioning that last year at least half of the national parliaments of these countries were women.

“I particularly warn Armenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, the United Kingdom. Women were less than a quarter of their delegations. I urge these delegations to present themselves in a more balanced way this year, “he said

It should be reminded that the PACE Armenian delegation has eight members, four of whom are substitute members. Two of the eight members are women from the PAP faction Naira Zohrabyan and “My Step” faction Tatevik Hayrapetyan.

According to the report presented by the delegation, last year one in three PACE members was a woman – about 34 percent. This figure is slightly higher than the national average of 29%.

“In any case, there is a long way to go in achieving real equality. We should all do our best to increase the number of women in the Assembly, ”the PACE MP said.

She emphasized that women are not evenly represented among the chairmen of committees, deputy chairmen of PACE.

“Achieving gender equality, rapidly and effectively reducing the number of women is not only a matter of widening the spectrum of views, but also of human rights, as gender equality is also a human right,” she said.

It should be reminded that six delegations were disputed at the PACE winter session on January 27-31 due to gender inequality. In particular, the mandates of delegates from Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Macedonia, San Marino have not been confirmed; the matter has been referred to the Rules of Procedure and Equality and Non-Discrimination Committees.

According to data released in the report, by 2019, 34 percent of the Assembly’s delegates were women. For comparison, the same figure was recorded in 2018, and in 2017 it was 37%. It is noted that the PACE rule that women in delegations should be represented in the same way as in national parliaments had a positive impact. Although there are delegations where the representation of women is greater than in the parliaments of their countries.

The report recalls that PACE chaired a woman last year, and the number of female vice presidents increased from 33 percent to 41 percent, while at the same time the proportion of women in the Bureau dropped to 47 percent from 42 percent. The number of female chairmen of committees has also declined, with six out of 9 committees headed by women in 2018 and four by 2019. Women’s participation in committees is 32 percent.

According to the table presented in the report, the gender indices of Armenia among the delegations are not encouraging. As we have mentioned, women make up 25%. Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Ireland, Moldova, Morocco, San Marino and other states have the same figures. Of course, there are delegations with a lower rate, for example Poland – 17 percent, Romania and Slovakia – 20 percent, the United Kingdom – 24 percent, and so on.

Slovenia – 83%, Serbia – 71%, Iceland – 67%, Finland – 60%, etc., have the highest representation of women in the delegations.