Clinton Emphasizes Women’s Political Participation at UN Event

At the end of yesterday’s UN Women event on Women’s Political Participation, representatives signed a joint declaration affirming that “women’s political participation is fundamental to democracy and essential to the achievement of sustainable development and peace. ” The declaration also emphasized the importance of women’s participation “in all stages of political transition.”

During her remarks at the UN Women event, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged international support for women in Arab Spring countries: ” it’s important that we reach out to the new emerging democracies and societies, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, where women have marched and demonstrated, blogged, and put their lives on the line for a future that includes them, their families, their communities, and their countries.” Clinton applauded women in Libya for their efforts as well as Tunisia’s new electoral code that requires “full gender parity on election candidate lists.” Clinton conveyed U.S. commitment to “ensure that women who played a decisive role in carrying out Egypt’s revolution are not left out of the democratic transformation, because, in effect then, it will not be a true democracy,” by supporting initiatives like the Charter of Egyptian Women.