Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Women's representation
in gov't deliberated
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — HRH Princess Basma on Monday underscored
the need for government and non-governmental organisations to work together to
ensure better representation of Jordanian women in decision making positions.
“If we do not work hard and as one team for women in Jordan, God forbid, women
might fail and we do not wish for that to happen because women must assume their
real roles which they deserve,” Princess Basma said at the closing session of a
two-day consultative meeting.
The meeting, on “Women and Political Representation: Enhancing Women's
Representation in Elected Councils,” was organised by the Jordanian National
Commission for Women (JNCW) in cooperation with the UN Electoral Assistance
Division (UN EAD), at the Queen Zein Al Sharaf Institute for Development.
“The road is long but time is short and we need to prepare ahead of time for
future elections to guarantee better women's representation, which will reflect
positively on our country,” she added.
Women's representation in the Lower House is only 5.5 per cent, while there are
seven female senators in the 55-member Upper House.
Meanwhile, only five of the 46 women who ran in the municipal elections won
seats. The government appointed 97 women in the municipal councils, including
one female mayor.
The Princess also praised the presence of senior government officials including
Minister of Municipal Affairs Tawfiq Kreishan and the Ministry of Political
Development Secretary General Bashir Rawashdeh.
“Your presence is a positive sign that the government is interested and
committed to support women reach decision making positions and we hope you will
continue to support us,” the Princess said.
Deputies, representatives from the women's movement in the Kingdom, academics,
political party members, foreign legal experts and local government officials
met over the past two days to come up with different electoral options that
might be proposed by the government and eventually adopted by the Parliament.
“Jordan is going through a transition towards more decentralisation which opens
opportunities for increasing the representation of women if we are well
prepared,” JNCW Secretary General Amal Sabbagh said.
“We are taking preemptive steps to be able to adopt any electoral system rather
than react after the fact,” Sabbagh added.
The participants, who were divided into three groups, suggested raising the
percentage of women in Parliament to 15, and to guarantee 15-20 per cent women's
representation in municipalities.
Participants suggested sending their recommendations for consideration to the
Steering Committee of the National Agenda and the Royal Commission for Regions.
A UN EAD handbook on “Women and Elections” was also launched during the closing
session.
The handbook is designed to provide a quick reference guide to assist
headquarters, field-based actors from the UN, governments and civil society
working to promote greater participation of women in electoral processes in
post-conflict countries.
The UN has been involved in the field of electoral assistance since its founding
in 1945. Today, the UN system is engaged in a wide range of development
assistance activities, which are intended to support the efforts of governments
to promote democratic election processes.