The European Union (EU) has urged political parties to adopt robust measures and strategies to increase women’s participation and representation.
It noted that the active participation of women at all levels of decision-making and politics is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace, and democracy.
The EU further stressed that there is an urgent need for political parties to review and reform all founding and policy documents, namely political parties’ constitutions, manifestos, party rules and procedures and strategy documents to incorporate national and international norms and obligations on gender equality.
European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Samuela Isopi, made the appeal during the Women in Parliament Summit in Abuja in commemoration of the International Women’s week, organised by the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), with the theme: inspiring inclusion: policy mechanisms for gender parity in politics.
She said, “The ongoing constitution reform process presents an opportunity to adopt an inclusive legal framework that promotes equal participation of all Nigerians regardless of gender, ethnicity, age and disability status.
“In Nigeria, the advocacy for women’s political participation has been long drawn, and in spite of the very dynamic interventions by women’s groups and other key stakeholders, their representation remains in steady decline. For example, women’s representation in the 10th National Assembly is 7.4 percent out of 469 combined seats in the Senate and House of Representatives.”
