UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has urged the comity of nations to raise their gender-equality ambitions to ensure that women everywhere have the same opportunity to sit at decision-making tables as men.
He said when women take up roles in public life, governments and legislatures, they are more responsive and accountable to all.
“I count on you to take action to better protect women in politics against the growing stress of violence” he stated.
In a recorded message to delegates attending the ongoing 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Kigali, Rwanda, Mr Guterres said “We look to you to address gender inequality, including special temporary measures to help drive change and results as that is what our world needs,” he said.
IPU assembly
The six-day event, which is being held on the theme “Gender equality and gender-sensitive parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world,” is being attended by over 1,200 delegates, including Speakers and deputy speakers of parliaments, representatives of diplomatic corps and international observer bodies.
The meeting will facilitate the exchanges on good practices to make parliaments more gender-sensitive as well as encourage parliaments to pledge transformative action.
Rwanda commended
Mr Guterres said as a proud parliamentarian himself and a former member of the IPU, he knows the pivotal work the member countries of the union are playing in building stronger communities and a better world,
He said they are a crucial bridge between the local and the global as they bring people’s concerns into the international arena and translate international agreements into national actions.
But to do so effectively, he stressed that Parliaments need to present the people they serve.
The Secretary-General commended the IPU’s focus on gender equality and gender-sensitive Parliaments as drivers of change.
He commended the host of the IPU’s assembly, Rwanda, for being the world’s first country with a female majority in Parliament.
He also emphasised the urgent need for parliaments to advance climate action at a scale that matches the scope of the challenge to defend human rights, rule of law and mobilise resources to confront hunger crises and emerging humanitarian emergencies and promote sustainable development and deliver the 2030 Agenda
“Together, let us go further and faster towards all the peace and equality and opportunity for all,” he said.
We don’t condone military coups
The Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Martin Chungong, expressed the union’s strong opposition to the emerging military takeovers on the African continent.
He said as a community of democrats, the union would not condone any assumption of power by military force.
In his view, the African continent was regrettably experiencing an epidemic of instability and coups, citing the recent military takeover in Burkina Faso, which had suffered a second military coup in a year.
“Further afield, the Sahel region is facing threats to its peace and security, becoming a hotspot for terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime, alongside numerous other challenges.
“I am sure we will all be keen to lend our support to this endeavour, needless to say, the tensions and conflicts simmering on the continent are undermining democratic institutions,” he said.
He reminded the assembly that unstable and compromised democracies were holding back the socio-political and economic development of societies, saying that “A coup d’état is never the appropriate response to instability or terrorism”.
“The right of the people to freely express themselves through elections must be safeguarded above all else.
“We must put our best foot forward and strive to identify dynamic and innovative solutions to bring back lasting peace, discourage military responses to instability, and support sustainable development throughout Africa,” he said.
Give dialogue a chance
Reminding the assembly that the founding fathers of the African Union placed a premium on dialogue in conflict resolutions, Mr said “we must give dialogue a chance for peace to prevail”.
“We must live up to AU’s founding fathers’ vision of deploying the full of parliaments and parliamentary democracy as our contribution to conflict resolution,” he added.