Mauritius calls for gender equality within a generation

Santi Bai Hanoomanjee, speaker of the National Assembly of Mauritius, on Monday called on the leaders of the world's parliaments to work together to achieve gender inequality within a generation.

"Let us work together to achieve gender equality in one generation," said Hanoomanjee at the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, which kicked off at UN Headquarters in New York.

"Gender equality is at the heart of democracy, peace and sustainable development," she said. "It is a matter of human rights, human dignity, justice and good governance."

While acknowledging progress has been made in some areas, Hanoomanjee said that it was not enough. Women today hold just 22 percent of seats in parliament and are also held back by discrimination and violence in everyday life, she said.

"It is undeniable that progress has been achieved at many levels and in many spheres in most of our countries," said Hanoomanjee. "It is also undeniable that no country can claim to have realized full equality between men and women."

Hanoomanjee highlighted the problem of violence against women, calling on parliaments to craft legislation to address the issue.

"One out of every three women worldwide has experienced intimate partner violence or sexual violence by someone other than a partner," said Hanoomanjee.

"Violence against women robs women of their dignity, robs them of their human rights, damages their health, reduces their productivity and prevents them from achieving their full potential," she said.

Hanoomanjee presented the report of the 10th meeting of women speakers of parliament. Twenty-four of the world's 42 women speakers took part in the conference on Aug. 29-30.

She also called on male speakers and male parliamentarians to be advocates for gender inequality.

"Gender inequality holds all of our countries back and the struggle to overcome it must therefore be a priority for all of us, both men and women," she said. Enditem