Twenty women, including eight from the High Council of State (HCS) and twelve from the Libyan Parliament agreed to work together to advocate for greater female representation in the country’s future parliament, revealed the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Tuesday.
In a statement, the UN Mission said that the mutually agreed strategy came during a meeting this week in Tripoli.
“Women face unique challenges in politics due to their perceived social roles in society,” said Georgette Gagnon, UNSMIL’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, who chaired the meeting.
“Women leaders have an opportunity and an obligation to ensure these challenges are addressed, and a path is paved towards increased women’s representation in Libya’s elections,” she added.
UNSMIL technical experts outlined different mechanisms for ensuring greater female representation in political leadership, and presented lessons learned from other countries. The participants then analysed the pros and cons of the various approaches in the Libyan context.
Currently, women constitute around 15% of the HCS and 16.5% of the Parliament, respectively. The newly published 13th Constitutional Amendment includes a temporary measure reserving 20% of seats for women in the upcoming elections, and charged a committee with designating seats for women in the Senate.
“Participants agreed to advocate for allocating the majority of seats through a proportional representation system, with candidates presented in lists with alternating female and male candidates,” UNSMIL said.
Under proportional representation, the seats assigned to constituencies are awarded to the winning lists, based on the ratio of votes won. They also discussed the minimal percentage of representation that should be established for Senate elections.
“It’s an obsolete question to ask why women’s representation is important in the 21st century,” said MP Saltna El-Msmare. “She’s the breadwinner in many Libyan families. She’s in business, moving things forward in middle management. She’s in every part of society. It’s only normal that she is represented.”
“It’s important that the HCS and Parliament work together on this issue, because we have realised, after extended political conflict, that the only way to get some things through is with support and approval from both councils,” she added.
HCS member, Lamya Sherif said female representatives “have often had to fight to be included in political committees but, through persistent advocacy, they have had some success. We are ready to do that over and over for women to succeed.”
