PM welcomes all initiatives boosting women’s rights in parliament
Tweet 
Share
The Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has stated that he welcomes all initiatives that will boost role of women in the Georgian parliament.
His comment referred to a draft in the legislative body envisaging the setting of gender quotas, which would enable more women to appear in the legislative body.
Kvirikashvili believes that women’s involvement in the country’s political, economic and social life is one of the major preconditions for the state’s democratic development.
Improving legislation for gender equality and boosting women’s labour rights is part of our obligations within the Georgia-EU Association Agreement. I believe that the draft law being discussed in Parliament over introducing obligatory gender quotas in the country’s Election Code will be a significant mechanism for increasing women’s involvement in politics,” Kvirikashvili stated.
The higher involvement will improve the Georgian political process and the country’s democratic level,” Kvirikashvili stated.
Non-governmental organizations submitted the draft law for gender quotas to parliament last year, supported by more than 37,000 signatures from citizens of Georgia.
If lawmakers support the bill Georgia will have at least 38 female lawmakers in the 150-member parliament after the 2020 parliamentary elections, while the figure will increase to about 75 after the 2024 parliamentary race, when Georgia will move to fully proportional elections.
Currently, 77 seats in the Georgian parliament are allocated based on a proportional, party-list system, while the remaining 73 seats are distributed to majoritarian lawmakers from single-mandate constituencies.
Of the almost 4,000 people questioned, two thirds (68 percent) believed there was no gender equality in the country, women were poorly represented in Parliament and having more women in leading roles would have a positive impact on the country.
Hundreds of supporters of gender equality from different fields will gather today at the Radisson Hotel in Tbilisi to mark the beginning of Gender Week.
Human rights, gender equality, healthy living and reproductive health will soon be an integral part of the Georgian school curriculum.
Georgia’s most gender equal entities will be revealed at a special awards ceremony that honours the equal treatment of men and women in business.
UNDP says that women's participation in Georgian parliament has been ‘mostly stagnating’ over the past 25 years, rising only to 15 per cent in 2019 from seven per cent in 1995.