Tripoli, 29 September:
Of the 23 countries which addressed the UN General Assembly’s 13th plenary meeting on the afternoon of 27 September 2012, . . .[restrict]six made relatively strong references to women, gender equality and the empowerment of women: Libya, Bangladesh, Burundi, Micronesia, Norway and Paraguay.
Seven, meanwhile, made made minor references: Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Thailand, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, Bahrain and Guinea.
Ten speakers made no references at all to women and gender equality issues, the Maldives, Seychelles, Iraq, South Sudan, Lebanon, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Greece, China and Peru.
In discussing the country’s national goals as an emerging democracy, National Congress President Mohammed Magarief underlined principles for the way forward including the empowerment of women and youth.
He mentioned “respect for human rights and mainly women rights” among the global challenges that still remain on the agenda of the United Nations.
The new Libya will be based on democracy, openness, transparency, combat of corruption, empowering women and the youth and will be for all and by all, he said.
“Our countries have convened annually in this forum since the establishment of the United Nations in order to reflect and achieve the objectives set out in its Charter”, Magarief said.
“We have made a lot of achievements and still have a lot of challenges, such as United Nations reform and disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, the reduction of poverty, ignorance and diseases, wars and armed conflicts, the fight against terrorism, and organised crime, and the preservation of the environment and achievement of sustainable development, respect for human rights and mainly women rights, and ensure the rule of law and the fight against racism, hatred and intolerance.”
Thirty-three women were elected to the 200 member National Congress in the July elections, 32 from political parties and one individual candidate.
Under legislation drawn up before the elections, parties were compelled to field as good as 50 per cent women candidates, whilst no such restrictions applied to individuals.
540 women stood for the 80 seats available on the party lists, as against 662 men. Just 85 women stood as individual candidates however, compared with 2,415 men.
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