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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth Experts Meet on Gender and Democracy

7 February 2000

Experts from 22 countries will arrive in Namibia this week for the Commonwealth Workshop on Gender and Democracy, the latest in a series of Commonwealth meetings on the theme Deepening Democracy.

The workshop will be opened on 9 February by the Speaker of Namibia's National Assembly, Dr Hon Mose Tjitendero MP.  Over the following three days it will focus on gender and three key aspects of the democratic process - elections, law making and government policy.  In a special message to the workshop participants Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku said:

The matter before you goes to the very heart of our Commonwealth concern for human dignity. I wish you well as you set out on this further effort to ensure that our democratic arrangements are characterised by gender equality, full and equal participation of both women and men and a genuine and effective partnership between them.

The participants will include five Government ministers from Namibia, Belize, St Lucia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.  Eight parliamentarians will come from Canada, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Zambia, while there will be academics from Australia, Bangladesh, Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago.  Political party representatives from Cyprus and Mozambique, civil society figures from the Fiji Islands, India, Malaysia and Uganda and a representative of the Southern Africa Development Community complete the line up.  There will be twelve observers, from the UN, Commonwealth bodies and Namibian and other NGOs.

Note to Editors:

The workshop takes place in the Safari Court Hotel, Windhoek, from 9-11 February.  It has been organised in co-operation with the Government of Namibia and with financial support from the British Government.  Two previous meetings in the Commonwealth Secretariat's Deepening Democracy series took place in Britain in 1998 (The Role of the Opposition) and Jamaica in 1999 (Workshop of Commonwealth Domestic Election Observers).  Further information can be obtained from Mr Christopher Child, Workshop Organiser: +264 61 240 240.

 

00/07 7 February 2000

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