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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 2
(11 of 21 pages)
Speaker: Madame Chairperson. Thank you for the floor. I'm Candon Hora (ph)
from Namibia. I'm a Member of Parliament. I would like to make emphasis on the contribution made by my colleague
from Namibia with regard to empowering women in our society as we see it in Namibia. I must tell you that Namibia
is only nine years independent. And before independence, both men and women, in particular black men and black
women were suppressed. But women being women suffered double suppression by the Kolonar (ph) regime. Now after
independence, we started putting measures in place to ensure that women will make up around 55 percent for our
population, participate fully in the economic development of our country as a right. We have started by putting
provisions in the constitution whereby our society is a non-sexist society. Men and women are treated equally.
It's a secular society; it's a secular republic where men and women are treated equally.
And then of course we had to ensure that legislation, which was put in place by the Kolonian (ph) regime, legislation
that prevents women from participating in the political level of the country are in fact taken out of the statutes.
We constituted a law reform commission. At first it was headed by a woman, but unfortunately now, it is headed
by a man. But whether it's a woman or a man, the commitment is that laws that discriminate against women are abolished.
And that commission is very active. We have also decided to give priority to education because we want participation
of conscious women as well as men. We decided to spend most of the biggest portion of the budget on education.
And as we are talking here, over 50 percent of our budget was to education. This would enable women to be educated
and to enable them to participate in politics more actively, and in particular to participate in economy.
We have also put in place some practical structures with regard to elections. We have legislated that when candidates
are selected, are put on the list, because we have a proportional system of elections. When candidates are elected
by political parties, into the [inaudible] lists, they must always be a system, a procedure whereby the first three
candidate in any [inaudible] list, is a woman, then second is a man, and then a woman, and then a man and so on.
Which was out in the effect that the majority of candidates in a given political party, there's always a woman.
And that was decided by parliament, by law. All parties obliged to follow that procedure. Now the result is that
in all local authority, because we start from the base, and the town councils, and the city councils and the village
councils, the majority of councilors are women because of the procedure. And that way we think that we are opening
up a way for our women to participate, but participate fully and actively.
And we have in almost all town and cities and settlement, mayors who are women, deputy mayors and so on, and governess,
we are trying to elevate that procedure, that system even to the high level. We have a proportional system, at
national level. When we elect a national assembly, the lower house parties compete in a proportional representation
system. Whereby candidates are put on the lists, so we started from the base, eventually we will come to the top
to say that the first person in the party list should be a woman, and then a man, and then a woman, and then a
man. And that way I think, with the combination of education, we will make it possible for women to participate
actively and fully.
But I might say the colleague from Mongolia, that woman really, are very active, more consistent and more hardworking,
than men. Or maybe it's because it's a new system in our country and probably our women folk want to make that
right to prove that they can deliver the services. But this is how we are trying to tackle this problem of women
emancipation, women participation. There is a policy of affirmative action for women to participate in both public
enterprises, private enterprises and in government. And in fact in the past there were laws and there are still
I think some laws in our statutes, because we have not abolished all of them, that prevent women to for example
buy a house. A women needs the approval of a man, the husband if it's a married woman, or of a father if it's not
a married woman, in order to buy a house, permission. Or in order to become a Director, in the private or even
public enterprise, you need the authorization from your husband or from your father. Now we are abolishing all
these laws. To make it sure that the 55 percent of our population participates fully. Just as men folk participate.
Madame Chairperson, thank you very much for giving me the floor.
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