Gender representation in the Parliamentary Assembly
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 28 September 2021 (26th sitting) (see Doc. 15366, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities
and Institutional Affairs, rapporteur: Ms Nicole Trisse; and Doc. 15376, opinion of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination,
rapporteur: Ms Petra Bayr). Text adopted
by the Assembly on 28 September 2021 (26th sitting).
1. The sharing of responsibilities
in political and public decision making between women and men is
an inherent element of any true and effective democracy, a matter
of equity and justice, and responds to the necessarily legitimate
aspirations that have been expressed in our societies for decades.
Women's empowerment and capacity building are essential to achieve
women’s effective and active participation in representative institutions
and decision-making bodies. Our societies are composed of an equal
number of men and women. Combining this reality with political representation
and establishing parliamentary parity are legitimate objectives;
where there is political will and where the impetus is given at
the highest institutional level, parity can become the norm.
2. In ten years, the proportion of women in the Parliamentary
Assembly has increased to 37%, reflecting the clear progress made
in most member States’ national parliaments, where the entry of
more women into each new legislature has been made possible by proactive
electoral legislation. However, whether it is in the Assembly or
in national parliaments, women are still the under-represented sex;
in only 10 national parliaments in Europe do women hold more than
40% of the seats.
3. The Assembly congratulates the member States which, through
their proactive legislation and also through awareness-raising,
accompanying, support and training policies, have made it possible
to open the doors of legislative power more widely to women and
to keep them open. It recalls all the recommendations it made in
its
Resolution 2290 (2019) “Towards
an ambitious Council of Europe agenda for gender equality”, its
Resolution 2111 (2016) “Assessing
the impact of measures to improve women’s political representation”,
its
Resolution 1781 (2010) “A
minimum of 30% of representatives of the under-represented sex in
Assembly national delegations” and its
Resolution 1585 (2007) “Gender equality
principles in the Parliamentary Assembly”. The Assembly once again
urges the national parliaments of member States, in particular the
16 national parliaments with less than a quarter of women members,
to make women’s access to elective office a priority, in line with
the recommendations of the Assembly and the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe, as contained in Recommendation Rec(2003)3
of the Committee of Ministers on balanced participation of women
and men in political and public decision making and Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)17
of the Committee of Ministers on gender equality standards and mechanisms.
4. In 2007, the Assembly set a target for national parliaments
to ensure that their delegations include “a percentage of women
at least equal to the percentage of women in their national parliament,
with a target of at least 30%, bearing in mind that the threshold
should be 40%”. Of 47 national delegations, 32 include a percentage
of women greater than or equal to 30%, of which 21 delegations have
a percentage greater than or equal to 40%. In this respect, the
Assembly congratulates the national parliaments of Albania, Andorra, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Croatia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Republic
of Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, San
Marino and the Slovak Republic for guaranteeing parity in their parliamentary
delegations to the Assembly, even though some of them come from
parliaments with a much lower percentage of women.
5. All the parliamentary delegations shall comply with the requirement
set out in Rule 7.1.b of the
Rules of Procedure to include at least one woman representative
(full member). This requirement, which is binding for small delegations,
is unquestionably a minimum requirement for medium-sized delegations
and even more so for large delegations of 20, 24 or 36 members.
In order to promote progress towards parity, and to call on certain
parliaments to set a higher example, the regulatory requirements
will have to be increased.
6. The Assembly therefore intends to redefine the representation
criteria that national parliaments must meet when setting up their
delegations to the Assembly. In this respect, it considers that
a delegation made up entirely of women does not respect the principle
of equal gender representation in the Assembly.
7. Finally, the Assembly supports the political objective in
the Council of Europe of promoting the threshold to be reached for
participation of women and men that is a minimum of 40% for each
sex. However, such an objective cannot at present be regarded as
a regulatory principle, the disregard of which by national delegations
would be sanctioned. The Assembly therefore formally undertakes
to increase the minimum representation of each sex in its delegations
to 40% as from the opening of its 2026 session.
8. In order to make the Assembly more representative and to encourage
national delegations to promote more effectively the political objective
of equal representation of women and men in the Assembly, in keeping with
a non-discriminatory approach, which takes into account the size
of the delegations, the Assembly decides to amend its Rules of Procedure
as follows:
8.1 with regard to
the
composition of national delegations,
in Rule 6.2.
a, delete the
second sentence and add the following new sub-paragraph [new Rule
6.2.
b]:
“Each national delegation must include both women and
men among its representatives. As long as women are under-represented
in the Assembly, each national delegation shall include a percentage
of women as members that is at least equal to the percentage in
its parliament or, if this is more favourable to the representation
of women, ensure gender representation as follows:
- delegations
with 2 seats (4 members) shall include at least one woman as representative;
- delegations with 3 seats (6
members) shall have a minimum of 2 women, including at least one
woman as representative [footnote 1];
- delegations with 4 seats (8
members) shall have a minimum of 3 women, including at least one
woman as representative;
- delegations with 5 seats (10
members) shall have a minimum of 3 women, including at least 2 women
as representatives;
- delegations with 6 seats (12
members) shall have a minimum of 4 women, including at least 2 women
as representatives;
- delegations with 7 seats (14
members) shall have a minimum of 5 women, including at least 3 women
as representatives;
- delegations with 10 seats (20
members) shall have a minimum of 7 women, including at least 4 women
as representatives;
- delegations with 12 seats (24
members) shall have a minimum of 8 women, including at least 4 women
as representatives;
- delegations with 18 seats (36
members) shall have a minimum of 12 women, including at least 6
women as representatives.”
[footnote 1: “Pursuant to Resolutions 1113 (1997) and 1376
(2004), the delegation of Cyprus can only fill 4 of the 6 seats
to which it is entitled; it should be considered as a 4-member delegation”];
8.2 in order to clarify the procedural grounds for a challenge
to the credentials of a national delegation relating to its composition,
replace Rule 7.1.
b with the
following:
“the conditions set
out in Rule 6.2.a and Rule 6.2.b”;
8.3 with regard to the
election
of Assembly Vice-Presidents, as delegations are encouraged
to present candidates who are women, add the following sentence
at the end of Rule 16.3:
“A delegation
may propose a man as Vice-President only if it includes at least
40% women”.
9. In order to encourage the effective role of women in the decision-making
process and in parliamentary work, the Assembly calls on the its
political groups to promote more proactively the balanced representation and
participation of women and men in the Assembly’s decision-making
bodies, and in particular to:
9.1 strengthen
consultation when nominating candidates for the bureaux of the nine
Assembly committees so as to achieve parity in the offices of chairpersons
and vice-chairpersons;
9.2 establish the principle that, when proposing members of
ad hoc committees, the gender breakdown is no less balanced than
the composition of the group proposing them or, if this is more favourable
to the promotion of gender equality, according to the “one in three”
principle;
9.3 follow the “one in three” principle in the appointment
of women and men as group spokespersons in Assembly debates;
9.4 aspire to parity and alternation between men and women
for group chairperson and vice-chairperson positions;
9.5 aspire to follow the “one in three” principle in the appointment
of women and men as members of ad hoc committees in charge of election
observation.
10. Moreover, the Assembly considers that the “one in three” principle
shall apply to the composition and functioning of committees. It
therefore decides to amend its Rules of Procedure as follows:
10.1 with regard to the appointment
of members of the Monitoring Committee, the Committee on Rules of
Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs, and the Committee
for the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights,
add the following sentence to the end of Rule 44.3.
a:
“At
the beginning of each ordinary session, the candidatures presented
by each political group to each of these committees must include
at least one-third women where the group holds at least three seats.
The Bureau shall appoint members, ensuring that the committees concerned
always include at least one-third women”;
10.2 with regard to the composition of ad hoc committees, in
Rule 44.4.
c, after the second
sentence add the following sentence:
“An
ad hoc committee, with the exception of ad hoc committees in charge
of election observation, shall include at least one-third women”;
10.3 with regard to the
appointment
of rapporteurs by committees, in Rule 50.1, after the
third sentence, add the following sentence:
“A committee shall include at least one-third women among
its rapporteurs”.
11. Finally, the Assembly instructs its Bureau to ensure that
this “one in three” principle is applied in all appointment decisions
for which it is responsible, in particular in the institutional
representation of the Assembly.
12. The Assembly invites the Bureau to report to it at least once
annually on the implementation of the above measures, including
on efforts to promote gender mainstreaming and change parliamentary
culture on gender equality in the Assembly’s work more generally,
and to publish this report. In addition, it invites the Bureau to draw
up guidelines for committees regarding the promotion of gender balance
in their work. These guidelines should aim, inter
alia, to ensure that committees pay due attention to
gender balance among external interlocutors invited to participate
in their work and in the appointment of representatives to external
events. Committees should also be required to report at least once
annually to the Bureau on the implementation of these guidelines
and on their efforts to promote gender mainstreaming in their work.
13. The Assembly underlines that progress towards gender equality
in parliamentary structures will be hampered if due attention is
not paid to the need to eliminate sexism and sexual harassment within
these structures. It recalls the crucial recommendations made in
its
Resolution 2274 (2019) “Promoting
parliaments free of sexism and sexual harassment”, and instructs
the Bureau to report to it by January 2022 on the steps taken to
implement that resolution within the Assembly.
14. The Assembly considers that the implementation of the obligations
and objectives set out in this Resolution is the collective responsibility
of each national parliament and each political party or group. This responsibility
should be shared equally within each delegation between all political
parties and, in the case of bicameral parliaments, between the two
chambers.
15. The Assembly decides that the changes to the Rules of Procedure
contained in this Resolution shall enter into force at the opening
of the January 2023 part-session. The bodies concerned (national
delegations, groups, committees) are invited to make adaptations
over the months in order to achieve the objective of a more balanced
representation of women and men by that date at the latest.
