OSCE CONCERNED OVER INSUFFICIENT PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN WORK OF SOUTH CAUCASUS PARLIAMENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net - The OSCE expresses concern over insufficient participation of women in the work of Parliaments and national delegations of the member states, including the South Caucasian countries. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) special representative Tone Tingsgard's Gender Balance 2005 report, made public at the OSCE PA official website, contains this provision. It noted the quantity of women in the Azeri, Armenian and Georgian delegations to the OSCE PA did not change significantly within the past 5 years. According to the report the proportion of women and men in Azerbaijan's delegation to the OSCE PA was 1:5. The figure made 1:3 in Armenian delegation, while 2:5 in the Georgian. «If governments have troubles finding qualified candidate women, the OSCE PA national delegations can assist them in the search and consideration of suiting ones,» the report notes. At the same time the document analyzes the number of women MPs in the South Caucasus parliaments. The figure makes 13 out of 124 (10,5%) in Azerbaijan, 7 out of 131 (5,3 %) in Armenia, and 22 out of 235 (9,4%) in Georgia. Highest percentage of women MPs is in the Parliaments of Sweden (45,3%), Norway (38,2%) and Finland (37,5%). The report notes that the OSCE PA delegations should encourage governments of their countries to increase the budget of the OSCE Office of Gender Advisor in Vienna. The document clearly shows that even in the OSCE - a human rights organization - situation is unsatisfactory in many respects, reported Trend.