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SARAJEVO, September 25 (FENA) - Women are insufficiently represented in influential positions in BiH society, though they make up half of the voting body, it is said in one of the conclusions of the Baseline Study on Barriers to Political Participation of Women in BiH, conducted in the project "Women in Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina".
The project is funded by Sweden and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and UN Women BiH in partnership with the BiH Central Election Commission, the BiH Gender Equality Agency, the entity government gender centers and the BiH Parliamentary Assembly.
The results of the analysis were presented today by the project implementers to the relevant stakeholders in the UN building in Sarajevo, emphasizing that it focuses on strengthening women's leadership in BiH and encouraging greater and better representation of women in the decision-making processes and women's political participation.
The aim is to contribute to ensuring equal opportunities for women candidates in the upcoming 2020 local elections and to promote equal participation of women in the decision-making processes.
The study’s co-author Lejla Ramić Mesihović told reporters that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not even meet the criterion of 40 percent participation of women in elected bodies.
“It only fills half of that quota, which means we have a lot of room for the much needed improvement. On the contrary, the legislation of the country is not an obstacle, nor are electoral platforms of political entities, but the problem is that the rules and the set norms are not respected. In that sense, there is no significant difference in the behavior of left, right or center parties in a country where politics is still understood to be male-dominated business,” concluded Ramić Mesihović.
Our problem, she said, is that we are gradually forgetting, and instead of improving and upgrading, we are going backwards in terms of women’s position in politics.
The UN Women representative David Saunders points out that, women are globally under-represented as voters and leaders.
Therefore, in his opinion, the results of similar studies are important because of the identification of obstacles to improving the situation, in this case in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the next local elections.
When asked how to overcome the obstacles identified, Saunders responded that the involvement of all stakeholders in society, i.e. social, economic and political engagement, is needed.
Swedish Ambassador to BiH Johanna Stromquist emphasized that her country wholeheartedly supports the project "Women in Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina".
“Women make up half of the population, so there is no reason not to be involved in political life to that same extent,” she said, noting that Sweden launched a feminist foreign policy five years ago with the aim of further securing women's rights in all social spheres.
(FENA) S. R.
