National Campaign “For Equal Opportunities”

Women want 30% presence on candidate lists

The women from the Union of Macedonian Women Organizations, supported by OSCE and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, will strive for winning 30% presence in the upper and lower parts of the candidate lists at the coming elections. On 27 September, they promoted the national campaign “More elected women at the general elections in 2006 – for equal opportunities”, seeking higher percentage of women in the election bodies.

You can be proud of what you have accomplished with the increase of the percentage of women. The women participation at the local elections on the candidate lists increased to 30%, which resulted in higher percentage of women-advisors, which grew from 8.4 to 22.4”, said Viktor Ulom, Head of the Rule of Law Department in OSCE, who pointed out that according to the so-far ranking of women in politics, Macedonia is the second in the region. He also emphasized that women should be more present on the candidate lists, but that they should also get better positions in the lection bodies. The president of the legislative-legal commission at the Parliament, Cvetanka Ivanova, stated that the working version of the law for equal opportunities is ready, but that the law, too, will contribute to improving the women status in the society, and that discrimination, sexism, and the mechanisms for their prevention will be defined. Elena Grozdanova from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy thinks that the project for increasing the women participation will contribute to the implementation of the government’s National Action Plan for Promotion of Gender Equality.

 

Z.G.