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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 4
(9 of 20 pages)
Talking about all these things, I am trying to give you an idea of the situation
and how difficult it is sometimes to really do something about it. If you want to do something then you really
have to take into consideration so many factors before you do anything. You have to be able to go over the social
obligations, the social expectations, the social norms, which most of the time are stronger than the written laws.
Most of the laws are in favor of women in this country, but practices are not, even within the official public
offices. Sometimes it takes a special interpretation.
We have two laws that we are suffering from as a rule and they also have nothing to do with the Constitution, and
these are related to the personal status law, which women are mostly affected with and the nationality law. With
the latter, the woman cannot even give her nationality to her babies or her children because she is a woman. Most
of the time, the trouble is that the laws are made by men. Women are not there to participate in doing that.
Women have been active in all these fields that I'm talking about, starting with the illiteracy eradication, helping
as well the eradication of poverty amongst the whole population, including women, trying as well to help women
with their health, their knowledge about themselves, about their lives and how to make them become economically
and politically empowered. One fact though that I think anybody in Yemen would really take into consideration,
is that women are really growing. Their role is growing when it comes to their influence on public life, even with
the small percentage represented in these public offices.
Thank you for being so patient. Thank you, Madame Chairwoman.
Chair: Thank you very much. There were a number of things. I noted one that was of interest in terms of
women in business, that was something that wasn't heard earlier and the whole issue of going over social norms
and expectations and practices and how those can be even stronger than the laws. Tradition and heritage can be
stronger than a law. It is good to hear that women are active in Yemen and that they're not giving up and that
they will continue to participate in the process.
I would like to pass a piece of paper around for those who would like to speak and while you're doing that I will
just frame the questions that we're going to answer. Everyone will get to speak.
Our speakers set the stage for a discussion. Our topic is participation, democratic decision making, the vital
voices of women, civil society and pluralism. We all agree that in a democracy, broad-based participation is very
much a necessity and that governments need to be accountable to the citizens and citizens need to tell the government
what they want and what their needs are. It's a two-way street. Clear and open communications between the two parties
involved. We would like to focus on three questions and this is by no means exhaustive of everything, but these
three will at least get us on a good path.
1. How can emerging democracies provide adequate institutional channels for citizens, groups, organizations, to
make their opinions, interests and complaints known?
2, What specific programs or initiatives can be adopted to encourage the participation of women, ethnic groups,
religious groups, different minorities, in the political process?
3. What institutional reform can help improve public access to and support for the policy making process? How can
we be involved in this process in our respective countries?
I'd like your comments to be directed to those three questions if possible, and with some very concrete and successful
stories and case studies if possible.
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