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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 10 November 2016
Within 15 years, half of all Libya’s decision-makers should be women, a female member of the House of Representatives said today.
Naima Dalef, who represents Zliten, was speaking at the opening of a three-day conference in Tunis at which fellow female members of the HoR are being joined by women parliamentarians from Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger and Sudan.
“We have to work together through this conference” said Dalef, “as male and female parliamentarians to activate women blocks in the parliament and to increase the representation of women in decision-making positions, reaching fifty-fifty representation by 2030”.
The gathering, initiated by female HoR members and funded by Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, was reminded that Libyan women had been involved in politics since the Revolution. Election laws had provided for Women’s Lists. As a result 31 females were elected to the 200-seat HoR in July 2014.
This, said Dalef, had led to the building of strong networks among different civil society organisations when had helped raise awareness of women’s issues.
“In any society, women are the driving force” Noura Hamladji, the United Nations Development Programme‘s Libya director told the meeting. “We salute all who have attended today and give special thanks to the members of HOR from Libya for their ambition and courage as they pursue positive change in the country”.
