By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 12 November 2016:
Female members of the House of Representatives are demanding that from now on any parliamentary delegation should have at least 30 percent women.
The call came at the end of a three-day meeting in Tunis hosted by UNSMIL, during which some of the 31 women elected to the parliament in 2014 also compared political notes with female legislators from Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Sudan and Tunisia.
The conference opened on Thursday with a challenge from Naima Dalef, HoR member for Zliten that by 2030, half of all elected representatives should be female.
At present 31 members of the 200-seat HoR are women. Even without boycotts and low attendance at the parliament in Tobruk, organisers would be hard-pressed to ensure that almost a third of all delegations contains women.
Under the slogan “Together We Can, Together We Work, Together We Advance For Peace” the HoR members said that they had looked at legislation and oversight, women’s blocs and networking and the building of trust and alliances within the present parliament.
The UNSMIL press release noted “Training, capacity development, exchange of best practices and media skills were common threads” to all these topics.
UNSMIL chief Martin Kobler said he congratulated the women on proposing practical steps during the conference. “Women are key agents for change, peace and progress. Elevating half of humanity lifts us all”.
