Source: IIP Digital
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says that if the international community wants a safe, secure, prosperous and peaceful future, then women must be equal partners and free to realize their own potential.

Clinton described the scarcity of political participation by women globally as one of the “great pieces of unfinished business in the 21st century.” Clinton believes that expanding women’s political participation and decisionmaking is crucial for the development of democracy, and also vital for achieving sustainable development in underdeveloped nations.

Women leaders, presidents and heads of state participated in a September 19 event at the United Nations in New York to advance the role of women in politics. It was part of a series of meetings and conferences on the margins of the opening of the 66th Session of the U.N. General Assembly.

“We are bound by a common goal: to open the way for women to participate in all decisions affecting the development of our world, at the global, regional, national and local levels,” said Michelle Bachelet, executive director of the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (U.N. Women) and the former president of Chile.

“By making full use of half the world’s intelligence — the intelligence of women — we improve our chances of finding real and lasting solutions to the challenges that confront us,” Bachelet said.

U.N. Women estimates that women make up less than 10 percent of the world’s leaders, and globally less than one in five members of national parliaments is a woman. The 30 percent critical mass for women’s representation in national parliaments has been reached in only 28 countries, the organization says.

Clinton said that it’s not enough for those gathered at the United Nations in New York to be committed to women’s political participation, but “it’s also 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.”

“Women have to be part of the future. And it’s imperative that as constitutions are created, as political parties are organized, as elections are waged and won, nobody can claim a democratic future if half the population is marginalized or even prevented from participating,” Clinton said.

No nation can achieve broad-based economic growth, which is essential in today’s global economy, if women are not included in the process, she added.

“When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of communities, nations and the world,” Clinton said.

The U.N. conference on women’s political participation issued a joint statement that aimed to advance women’s role in the leadership of nations, saying: “We stress the critical importance of women’s political participation in all contexts, including in times of peace, conflict and in all stages of political transition.”

The statement called on all nations to eliminate discriminatory barriers faced by women, particularly marginalized women, and encouraged nations to take measures to address the factors preventing women from participating fully in politics, such as gender violence, poverty and a lack of access to education.