Role of Women Parliamentarians in Political Agenda of Commonwealth Increases Annually

Equal participation of women in political processes is an important condition for the development of a free society and women parliamentarians have a special role on this way.

Parliamentary life

In the parliaments of the Commonwealth countries, women make up from 16 to 40% of MPs. In some of CIS countries, appropriate quotas are provided for when forming legislative bodies.

Thus, 30% of the seats in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia are reserved for women. Kazakhstan has a 30% quota for candidates on party lists and in the distribution of mandates for women, youth and persons with disabilities. 30% of candidates on party lists and in the distribution of mandates by parties are assigned by law to women in Uzbekistan.

Experienced politicians are in the leadership of the parliaments of the Commonwealth states. Parliamentary delegations to the IPA CIS are headed by Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic Sahiba Gafarova, Speaker of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Natalia Kochanova, Speaker of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Tanzila Narbayeva.

Protection of women’s rights

Since the first years of its work, the IPA CIS has been paying attention to issues of gender equality, family protection, motherhood and childhood, and reproductive health of citizens.  The Assembly has adopted a number of model laws, recommendations and concepts in this area.

In 2005, the model law on Public Guarantees of Gender Equality was adopted. The preparation of the model law of the IPA CIS on Protection of Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health was carried out jointly with the UN Population Fund. The model law was adopted by the IPA CIS in 2014.

The IPA CIS and the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Social Policy and Human Rights have close cooperation with the international organization “UN-Women”.

Eurasian Women's Forum

The largest authoritative international platform for discussing the role of women in modern society has become the Eurasian Women's Forum. The initiator of the forum was Valentina Matvienko.

Once every three years, women leaders from all over the world gather to solve urgent problems and strengthen the atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding in the world based on the universal values of humanism, rights and dignity.

The last Eurasian Women's Forum was held in 2021 and it brought together more than 2,500 people from 111 countries. The forum was attended by representatives of 23 international organizations.