Inter-Parliamentary Union President, Duarte Pacheco, has stressed that gender balance and equality are essential pillars of human rights, democracy, peace and development, in all their dimensions.
In this regard, he highlighted the progress made by Bahrain in this field, as reflected in the growing number of female members of the Council of Representatives.
He expressed IPU’s keenness to encourage gender equality and the exchange of the best practices among parliaments.
He asserted that Bahrain’s experience in the field of governance of gender balance applications and the launch of supportive executive tools has proven its usefulness, noting that the experience has contributed to increasing Bahraini women’s participation in the national development process, and therefore, and can be considered as a model to be emulated at the global level.
IPU President welcomed the launch of the Parliamentary Handbook for Mainstreaming Women’s Needs, which will support the ongoing efforts to achieve gender balance in Bahrain and abroad.
In a press statement following the forum held by the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) in collaboration with the Shura and Representatives councils on the sidelines of the 146th IPU Assembly, IPU President indicated that the Kingdom has been able to build an integrated model to consolidate and develop the institutional structure to ensure the sustainability of gender balance and equality, based on its fair constitutional principles, updated legislative system and effective executive procedures, within the framework of a national plan that has contributed, over the past 23 years, to enabling women to participate directly in the advancement of their homeland.
Duarte Pacheco underlined his keenness to disseminate and adopt international the best gender balance practices, stressing the importance of exchanging expertise and experiences in the areas of equal opportunities and gender balance at the global level, given the fact that global challenges can only be solved through innovative and proven solutions that take into account successful national experiences.
He affirmed the importance of gender balance in parliamentary work itself, and the need for lawmakers to understand and promote this core issue so that they can invest the tools and resources in their hands to make the world a more suitable place for the presence of women and activating their energies.
In this context, he hailed the SCW’s launch of s reference guide for parliamentary work to support the role of legislative institutions in monitoring and following up on the smooth implementation of national legislation and programmes related to women’s issues.
He emphasised that the IPU should spread Bahrain’s experience so that its member states could benefit from it.
Source: Bahrain News Agency