Challenge on procedural grounds of the still unratified credentials of the parliamentary delegation of Andorra
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 25 January 2018 (8th Sitting) (see Doc. 14475, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities
and Institutional Affairs, rapporteur: Ms Petra De Sutter; and Doc. 14481,opinion of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
rapporteur: Ms Elvira Kovács). Text adopted
by the Assembly on 25 January 2018 (8th Sitting).
1. On 22 January
2018, at the opening of the Parliamentary Assembly session, the
still unratified credentials of the parliamentary delegation of
Andorra were challenged on procedural grounds, in accordance with
Rule 7.1 of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, on the ground that
the delegation comprised no female representative, in violation
of Rule 6.2.a of the Rules
of Procedure.
2. The credentials of the Andorran delegation were transmitted
to the President of the Assembly by letter dated 18 January 2018.
On 19 January, a letter from Mr Vicenç Mateu Zamora, Síndic General
(Speaker of the Andorran Parliament), sent to the Secretary General
of the Parliamentary Assembly, stated that the current composition
of the Andorran delegation, approved “following an extraordinary
election (on 18 January)”, was the result of “an internal reorganisation
of two parliamentary groups” and gave an assurance that the General Council
would take “the necessary measures to rectify the composition of
the national delegation as soon as possible”.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly reiterates its strong commitment
to promoting the balanced representation of women and men in political
and public decision making and to applying the principle of gender
equality in its internal structures, in particular by encouraging
balanced representation of women and men in national delegations.
The Assembly also underlines that, in order to achieve genuine equality,
the principle of equality should also apply to positions of responsibility.
It also refers to its
Resolution
2111 (2016) on assessing the impact of measures to improve women’s
political representation and reasserts its support for the principle
of gender parity as the ultimate goal of political representation.
4. The Assembly therefore finds it regrettable that it must remind
national parliaments, through the procedure for challenging delegations’
credentials, of what, nonetheless, is a minimal requirement as regards the
representation of women in the Assembly, namely the presence of
at least one woman as a representative in each delegation.
5. The Assembly notes that the composition of the Andorran delegation
does not fulfil the conditions laid down in Rule 6.2.a of the Rules of Procedure and
that its credentials have been legitimately challenged. It notes that
the delegation has stated that it undertakes to ensure full compliance
with the condition laid down by the Rules of Procedure at the earliest
opportunity.
6. Accordingly, the Assembly decides to ratify the credentials
of the Andorran parliamentary delegation, but to suspend the voting
rights of its members in the Assembly and its bodies in accordance
with Rule 10.1.c of the Rules
of Procedure, with effect from the beginning of the Assembly’s April
2018 part-session, if the composition of the delegation has not
been brought into conformity with Rule 6.2.a of
the Rules of Procedure by then – to include, at a very minimum,
one member of the under-represented sex as a representative – and until
conformity is achieved.
