Pacific Lagging On Women's Political Participation, Says UN Official
Kaya Selby
There is a long road ahead on women's issues in the Pacific Islands, but at least discussions are beginning to take place at high levels.
That is the opinion of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Pacific head Heike Alefsen.
The office recently celebrated 20 years since its establishment in Fiji's capital Suva in 2005, playing the role of advisor to island nations on human rights issues.
Alefsen told RNZ Pacific that the region seems to stick out in terms of lack of political participation by women.
"We have countries that have zero [women] parliamentarians and [no women] in cabinet," she said.
"Two countries that have some reserved seats in parliament and a few women in cabinet, but overall the percentage is really very low compared to most other regions of the world."
In Fiji, Alefsen noted that their number of female MPs has halved, from 10 to 5, since 2020.
"As we have seen in recent elections, the numbers can drop very quickly."
Her office is advising nation states that they should be working towards 50/50 gender parity in their governing bodies, in accordance with recommendations from the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
For Fiji, as discussions about temporary special measures to boost female representation in parliament take place, Alefsen said they should be taken seriously.
"They are there to rectify entrenched longstanding discrimination and under-representation of women.
"They are not there as handouts, or to get women in that are tokenistic."
Measures could include reserving seats, either at the parliament level or within individual political parties, Alefsen said.
"It is a discussion that will need to overcome a lot of entrenched stereotypes, as to the roles of women and men in political spheres, and also what the obstacles are."
"This would come at a time when violence against women and girls, throughout the whole Pacific region, remains a significant problem.
"About two-thirds on average of all women in the Pacific, including Fiji, experience violence," she added.
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