Dr Susan Dodsworth and Professor Nic Cheeseman Across the world activists are working hard to get more women in politics. Their degree of success has varied. In Kenya, for example, women now make up almost 22% of the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. This represents a significant improvement compared to 2010, when women [...]
WFD welcomes the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women in politics released on 5 October. The report offers valuable guidance and actions member states, their parliaments, political parties and electoral oversight bodies can and should take to address violence against women in politics. WFD’s Chief Executive Anthony Smith noted: [...]
On 18-20 June, representatives of Commonwealth parliaments met at Wilton Park to review and update the 2006 Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Benchmarks on Democratic Legislatures. The meeting, organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) and Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) under the Commonwealth Partnership for Democracy (CP4D), brought together representatives from the Maltese, Canadian, Indian, Pakistani, [...]
Hungry for good news about politics? Here’s some: more women than ever before are participating in politics worldwide. It’s a global trend that signals positive outcomes for inclusive governance. However, as the number of women engaging in political activity has grown, so has the frequency and degree of violent responses to their presence in politics. [...]
On 6 November, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, endorsed a recommendation by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) that “Parliaments should use updated Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Benchmarks on Democratic Legislatures as a tool to ensure their contribution to Sustainable Development Goal 16 (on inclusive and accountable governance)”. The launch of the Benchmarks for Democratic [...]
Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) welcomes the adoption of rules of procedure by the Georgian Parliament’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) after MPs passed recommendations without amendment. Mrs Eka Beselia, Chair of the HRC, received praise from George Kunnath, WFD’s Regional Director for Europe, following the passage of the relevant legislation earlier in June. The changes [...]