Increased representation of women in the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly

Resolution 1079 (1996)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

See Doc. 7494, report of the Committee on Parliamentary and Public Relations, rapporteur: Mr Colombier. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 20 March 1996.

Thesaurus

1. At present women are represented in all national parliaments of Council of Europe member states. However, some delegations to the Assembly are exclusively male or include a much smaller percentage of women than is present in their national parliaments.

2. The Assembly considers this situation incompatible with the principle of equality between the sexes, asserted and upheld by the Council of Europe, and that national parliaments whose delegations show such an imbalance must endeavour to redress the situation.

3. It acknowledges, however, that the strict application of the principle of representation reflecting the percentage of women elected to national parliaments may be inappropriate in view of factors such as a percentage of seats reserved for smaller political parties, or delegations having only a limited number of seats.

4. Nevertheless, the Assembly:

4.1 recommends that national parliaments, and in particular those represented by large or medium-sized delegations, seek to ensure that the percentage of women present in their national parliaments be reflected within the delegation;

4.2 calls upon leaders of national delegations in which imbalances still exist to take the necessary steps within their national parliaments to redress such imbalances;

4.3 calls upon the political groups represented in the Assembly to take similar action within the parties which they represent.