Voice and Power:

Pacific Women & National Legislatures

WOMEN IN POLITICS IN PNG

Carol KIDU DBE Papua New Guinea

The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

The presentation will cover some of the challenges of getting women into parliaments in the Pacific, how the Pacific compares with other regions, and why it is particularly challenging in this region. The presentation will focus on experiences in Papua New Guinea.

SMALL COUNTRIES BIG CHALLENGES

Regional Averages
Region
Single House/Lower House

Upper House or Senate --25% 21.5%

Both Houses Combined --24.1% 23.2%

Nordic Countries Americas

Europe OSCE member countries* Europe OSCE member countries**

42% 23.9% 23.7%

21.9%

21.5%

21.8%

Sub-Saharan Africa Asia Arab States Pacific

21.2% 18.4% 14.9% 12.7%

17.5% 14.1% 6.7% 36%

20.8% 17.9% 13.3% 15.3%

Pacific countries have the lowest proportion of women in parliament of any region in the world, lagging behind even Arab states. Women hold just 5 per cent of Pacific parliamentary seats compared with a global average of 18 per cent.

World Classification
Rank 92 103 107 109 111 118 120 122 125 126 128 129 131 132 134 135 136 139 139 139 139 Country Turkey Georgia India Armenia Malaysia Kiribati Bhutan Japan Tuvalu Maldives Myanmar Sri Lanka Samoa Tonga Marshall Islands Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Micronesia (Federated States of) Nauru Palau Vanuatu Lower or single House Seats* Women %W 550 78 14.2% 150 18 12% 545 60 11% 131 14 10.7% 221 23 10.4% 46 4 8.7% 47 4 8.5% 480 38 7.9% 15 1 6.7% 77 5 6.5% 431 26 6% 225 13 5.8% 49 2 4.1% 28 1 3.6% 33 1 3% 111 3 2.7% 50 1 2% 14 18 16 52 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Upper House or Senate Seats* Women %W ------------245 26 10.6% ------66 15 22.7% ------25 6 24% 236 43 18.2% ------------224 4 1.8% ----------------------------------------13 ------3 ---

----23.1% ---

Women in Pacific Island Forum Country Legislatures, as of Jan 2013

THREE IS STILL NOT ENOUGH !!

2.7% of the Parliament of PNG being female does not constitute a representative democracy History of women in Parliament in PNG: 1975 3 women of 109 MPs 1982 1 woman of 109 MPs 1987 0 women of 109 MPs 1992 0 women of 109 MPs 1997 2 women of 109 MPs 2002 1 woman of 109 MPs 2007 1 woman of 109 MPs 2012 3 women of 111 MPs

Authority of the PNG Parliament to appoint women members

Power to appoint nominated members exists under Sections 101 and 102 of the Constitution
Two kinds of members of Parliament (S101)
elected nominated

Parliament may appoint up to three members (S102)

Two thirds absolute majority vote is needed These are nominated members

Why was this power included in the Constitution?

it provides the opportunity for bringing into Parliament people from particular groups not otherwise represented
Constitutional Planning Committee Report

Parliament does have the POWER to appoint women to Parliament

What about the PROCESS? The Constitution is silent about the process. In fact the process would need to be different for different interest groups. Three earlier attempts to use this provision of the Constitution for women had failed because of lack of process in the past. Thus much effort put into designing a process after the disappointing 2007 election result.

NEC (Cabinet) mandated process

Screening panel appointed:
7 national organisations put forward reps Chaired by rep of NCW executive

Panel sworn in by Deputy Chief Magistrate

Signed Code of Conduct (confidentiality, conflict of interest, fairness etc)

Independent HR company recruited by UN to document and support the process:

Reports available from screening panel and HR company documenting every step

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST (EOIs) (78 received confidential)

OPENING OF THE LOCKED BOXES BY SCREENING COMMITTEE WITH UN OBSERVER

INDEPENDENTLY APPOINTED SCREENING COMMITTEE counting and sorting EOIs

EOIs RECORDED BY HR COMPANY

OPPOSITION APPOINTED OBSERVER IN BACKGROUND

WHAT HAPPENED ?
Screening committee reduced list of 78 EOIs down to 12 for interview 11 interviews resulted in shortlist of 6 Shortlist delivered in sealed envelope to Prime Minister to consult with Opposition Leader to choose final 3. Opposition Leader objected to process Motion put to the Floor by the PM Motion for three nominated women Members was defeated in Parliament

BUT WORK WAS STILL CONTINUING ON DRAFTING LEGISLATION FOR RESERVED SEATS AND TO RESPOND TO THE OBJECTIONS STATED BY THE OPPOSITION
Using Nominated Seats was planned only as an Interim measure to bring some women to join me on the Floor during this term of Parliament. The main plan was for Reserved Seats by elective process as a TSM for 2012 elections enormous effort was put into this.

Regular consultative meetings

L to R: Lawyer from AGs Dept, Sec Gen of Political Party; Minister; NCW Sec Gen; ODW acting Director ; UN staff rep and political activist

Compiling the Cabinet submission for amended Bill to accommodate some MPs concerns

PREPARING INFORMATION FOLDERS FOR EVERY Member

of Parliament

HOW MANY EVEN BOTHERED TO READ THEM ?

IN ADDITION TO THIS.......
National Council of Women (NCW) and Women in Politics conducted an awareness roadshow to the four regions of Papua New Guinea and NCW network took awareness to District and local level about the Equality and Participation Bill PLUS a media campaign was organised with the support of a specialist from UNIFEM (now UN Women) regional office in Fiji (print media, TV and radio - samples can be shown at end of presentation)

AND ALSO.......
An international CALL FOR ACTION signed by many countries globally Many in-country Petitions from womens organisations, Business and professional Womens Club, Catholic Nuns Letters to PM and lobbying with Parliamentarians by Australian and NZ MPs, by Helen Clerk, by Hilary Clinton and by Pacific Commonwealth Womens Parliamentary Committee.

So what happened?
The Equality and Participation Bill has two parts to it: 1. A Constitutional Amendment (requiring 55 votes) to provide for special seats for women as defined by an Organic law. This was passed successfully in November 2011 2. An Enabling Organic law (requiring 73 votes) defining the boundary for the womens seats. With the political boycott by Somare faction and conscience vote allowed by ONeil faction, the vote failed (21 walked out of Chambers)

But it is not finished yet...

PNG Constitution is very clear about equality in: Goal 2 - Equality and participation
We call for:
An equal opportunity for every citizen to take part in the political life of the country; Equal participation by women citizens in all political activities; and All governmental bodies of PNG, including the national Parliament, to ensure that, as far as possible, political bodies are so composed as to be broadly representative of citizens from the various areas of the country.

Reasonable opportunity
All PNG citizens have a constitutional right to a reasonable opportunity
to take part in the public affairs of PNG, and hold public office (Section 50)

The electoral system has NOT delivered a reasonable opportunity for women

Same rights and privileges

All citizens have the same rights and privileges irrespective of gender (Section 55) Section 55 (2) permits the making of laws for the special benefit, welfare, protection or advancement of females, children and young persons....

What is the purpose of these Constitutional provisions?

Are they just inspirational empty words? Are they just for guidance?
NO

As a Governmental body, Parliament must implement them where it can Laws must be interpreted in ways which implement these Constitutional provisions Parliament is obliged to change this rhetoric to a new reality for women

FOR PACIFIC REGION Joint statement made by Pacific Island States at UN General Assembly Special Session on ICPD @ 15 on the 12th October 2009 made the following observations

We acknowledge that our region is making slow progress towards gender equality and womens empowerment and that to date it has a lower percentage of parliamentary seats occupied by women than any other region in the world.

FORUM LEADERS COMMUNIQUES

Forum Leaders 2007 Communiqu held in Tonga
-

agreed to explore ways to enhance participation, particularly by women, in decision making processes and institutions, and in particular parliamentary processes;
Forum Leaders 2010 Communiqu held in Cairns Australia

on Good Governance: ; iv. supporting efforts to allow an enhanced role for women in national decision making processes;
Forum Leaders 2011 Communiqu held in New Zealand

- Leaders

highlighted the importance of gender equality and agreed to intensify efforts to promote womens equal role in decision-making at all levels, and to continue to improve advocacy for womens leadership and the empowerment of women as leaders. Leaders committed to increase the representation of women in legislatures and welcomed initiatives being pursued in several Forum members.

Making it happen needs more male champions to paddle in the same direction the power for change for women is in mens hands

TAKING ACTION FOR CHANGE - VOICES OF WOMEN MUST BE HEARD IN THE COMMUNITY AND IN PARLIAMENT