Iraqi legislators committed to ensure women’s rights

Iraqi women chant campaign
slogans. (Photo: Al Jazeera English
/Flickr/CC)

Members of the Iraqi Parliament promised to make serious efforts to approve laws in order to ensure all women the enjoyment of their social and economic rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, at the request of Iraqi Al-Amal Association, focal point of Social Watch in that country.

Twenty eight legislators representing several political parties participated in two round-table discussions held in Baghdad on the 18th of December 2011 and the 18th of January 2012. The meetings were organized by Iraqi Al-Amal Association in cooperation with the Women, Family and Children Committee and the Members Affairs & Parliamentary Development Committee, both of the Council of Representatives, with the sponsorship of UN-WOMEN.

Dr. Nahla Al-Nadawi, Lecturer at Baghdad University, facilitated the debate. Representatives of the European Union Gender Program, UN-WOMEN, the UNDP Governance Programme in Iraq and the United Nations Office for Project Services took part of the debates.

The participants focused on tools to exchange views and coordinate positions on women’s participation in the work of the Parliament, and to draft and enact the laws and the state budget with a gender perspective.

The legislators agreed to ensure leadership positions to women in Parliament, government and other state institutions.

The round-table discussions were part of a program carried out by Iraqi Al-Amal Association with the aim to strengthen deputies’ capacities to integrate the gender perspective into the Constitution and the laws.

These activities will be followed by two workshops focused on enabling legislators to use the right tools for the inclusion of gender and human rights issues in their agenda.

Source
Ankawa.com: http://bit.ly/xtllMU