Promoting gender equality, a top priority of IPU 132
(VOVworld) – The 21st Meeting of Women Parliamentarians opened in Hanoi on Saturday as part of IPU 132. National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, National Assembly vice chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, IPU President Saber Chowdhury and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and 200 IPU women parliamentarians attended the event.
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In his address, the Vietnamese top legislator said gender equality and women empowerment has been Vietnam’s consistent policy and guaranteed by Vietnam’s Constitution and the Law on Gender equality. The proportion of women parliamentarians in Vietnam’s National Assembly in the last 4 terms has been approximately 25%. He said that the National Assembly has contributed significantly to Vietnam’s and IPU’s goal of gender equality. IPU President Saber Chowdhury said: “Gender sensitive parliament is one of the primary focuses of the IPU. This year is also the 30th year of the women parliamentarians that we are going to meet here. We want to encourage more women to participate in politics. We want to see more women elected as members of parliament. We want to see more women in important ministerial positions and of course in sustainable development goals that we are hopefully going to adopt. IPU continues to press for a goal which is on women empowerment.”
Participants discussed Cyber warfare – A serious threat to peace and global security and Shaping a new system of water governance: Promoting parliamentary action on water.
The same day, President of the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP) Doris Katai Katebe and Head of the Vietnam National Assembly Office Nguyen Hanh Phuc co-chaired a press briefing on the conference of the ASGP from March 29 to April 1. Mr. Phuc said the theme "Seeking models of effective parliament assistant agencies" proposed by Vietnam's National Assembly has been selected to be one of the two topics for discussion at the meeting: "This topic is practical to Vietnam. There are different models in the world and each depends on a specific regime. Vietnam's model is one party and we have approved the law on the organization of the National Assembly according to which the Secretary General is the head of the National Assembly Office. This model is expected to be adopted at the coming 9th session of the National Assembly."
IPU 132 opens in Hanoi on March 28 drawing delegates from 160 countries.