New York/The Hague/Malé

On February 29, PGA Board Member Honorable Rozaina Adam, MP Maldives, submitted an amendment to the Constitution to set a quota of 33% for women in her Parliament. It requires two/thirds of the Parliament to pass and the preliminary debate will likely take place on March 6, two days before International Women’s Day.

• Hon. Rozaina Adam, MP

  Maldives

The bill calls to allocate women 33% of the 93 seats in Parliament. Only women would be able to compete for those seats. The selected constituencies would be allocated on a subsequent decision by drawing lots and each election year, the previous seats which were allocated for women, will not be included when drawing lots for the next election. This would mean that in the next three elections a woman would have represented every constituency. From that point onwards, the Parliament would take a vote again to assess the continuation of the quota.

By the end of the rotation every single constituency would have been represented by a woman. And people would be able to see the difference in a Parliament with one third of women instead of only four women as it currently stands.

Women would get familiar with the election process, running for political positions and winning elections.

Honorable Rozaina Adam, MP Maldives

We call on parliamentarians in the Maldives, and around the world, to take measures to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5 and, its targets 5.5 to ensure women’s full participation in leadership and decision-making in political, economic and public life and 5.9 to adopt and strengthen policies and enforceable legislation for gender equality.

Honorable Adam’s bill is a step in the right direction to guarantee women have access to realize their political dreams and to create a network of women leaders who can assist and support each other in the Maldives.

As the world celebrates, International Women’s Day, parliamentarians play a crucial role in ensuring equality is a living right for the benefit of all members in their communities.