Vanuatu could get reserved seats for women in parliament

Transcript

Vanuatu's justice minister says the government has approved a constitutional amendment to allow for reserved seats for women in parliament.

Vanuatu Kastom performer at International Day for Rural Women, October 2015 - Emua Village. Photo: Courtesy of UN Women - Nicky Kuautonga

Ronald Warsal says no women were elected to parliament in January's election, and he says women's voices are sorely lacking from the political arena in Vanuatu.

He says the government is working to have a bill to amend the constitution ready for the next sitting of parliament in June, which will pave the way for work to begin to create the legislation for it.

Mr Warsal told Jamie Tahana that will resolve questions including the number of seats to be reserved and whether they will added to or taken from parliament's existing 52 seats.

RONALD WARSAL: After all the members of Parliament decided that there was need for major political reforms. Included in that there was discussion that  there was discussion that there was need for women to be included in governance.

JAMIE TAHANA: No women made it at the last election did they?

RW: Yes there was no women who made it during the last election and the last woman MP we had was about 2004, 2008 and there was one in 1991. So yes it is pretty hard for them to win seats that was the general discussion and consensus amongst the caucus or the government caucus.

JT: Why is it hard for them to win seats?

RW: I don't know part of it is maybe culture like in the rurals the Melanesian values are strong. Women are seen to have different lesser roles. That is in the rurals but in the towns like Luganville and Port Vila the perception has changed. But I think because of that it makes it a bit hard for them to win. By doing that we would give women an opportunity to have a say in parliament that is the overall view.

JT: And how will it work, how many seats will be reserved, will they be added to the current number in parliament? Kind of what is the mechanics of it?

RW: all right the first thing is we have got this provision of the constitution where it talks about the composition of the members of parliament and then in that provision the council of ministers would approve an amendment that would prescribe reserve seats for women. We are having a final look at that on Thursday.

JT: Okay so you are sort of still to work out the numbers and such.

RW: Yes so you see we have got the key to open that door, we have not agreed on a number yet but putting a provision in the constitution that would allow the mechanism for maybe Parliament to pave way for women to have seats in Parliament be it through legislation. So we have got to have the mechanism to allow the provision of the constitution and then after that then you would see where this, we would fall in terms of number.    

Ronald Warsal says he hopes to have the rule in place by the 2020 election.