- OSCE meeting to identify ways to promote women’s participation in political and public life

VIENNA, 4 May 2010 - Representatives from the 56 OSCE participating States, civil society and international organizations will gather in Vienna on Thursday for a two-day meeting aimed at identifying ways to promote gender balance and the participation of women in political and public life.

The meeting, organized jointly by Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, will discuss progress and challenges in promoting gender equality in the OSCE region, empowering women as political party members and elected officials, as well as ensuring gender balance and women’s effective participation in public life.

OSCE participating States have acknowledged gender equality as a fundamental aspect of a just and democratic society based on the rule of law and adopted an Action Plan in 2004 to guide measures for achieving this goal.

But progress in promoting balanced participation of women and men in governance structures remains uneven across the region. For example, the representation of women in parliaments ranges from 45 per cent to as low as six per cent.

Journalists are invited to attend the opening of the conference, which will be held from 15.00 to 16.00 on 6 November in the Hofburg Congress Centre.

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- OSCE supports public debate on new Kyrgyz constitution

BISHKEK, 4 May 2010 - A roundtable meeting to discuss the draft Constitution of Kyrgyzstan organized by the Kyrgyz interim government with the support of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek was held today.

More than 100 participants discussed the draft of a new constitution and the main directions of the constitutional reform, and proposed their changes and amendments to the draft. Representatives of the recently-formed Working Group on the Constitutional Reform, the interim government, political parties, civil society, international organizations and media from the Bishkek, Issy-kul, Naryn, Talas and Chy provinces took part in the debate.

Ambassador Andrew Tesoriere, the Head of the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, said to the roundtable participants: "It is very important to make the process of amending the national Constitution transparent and inclusive, with the views of political parties, civil society, national and international experts and the broad spectrum of public opinion taken into consideration. To ensure citizens’ confidence in the reform process, the proposed changes need to be clear and understandable."

"The OSCE stands ready to support the debate on the constitutional reform and the conduct of a referendum. I hope that expert opinions provided by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission will be fully taken into account and will help ensure that the reform processes are in line with international standards," he said.

Omurbek Tekebayev, the deputy head of the interim government who is responsible for constitutional issues, said: "The reform aims to improve the health of political system, and offers free competition in politics, economics and mass media, and the distribution of political responsibility among the ruling party and the opposition. The citizens will be at the heart of Kyrgyz Republic’s parliamentary democracy."

The meeting focused in particular on human and civil rights and freedoms as the basis of the constitutional system; the legal status, and the rights, responsibilities and limitations, of the President; judicial reform; and the powers of the prosecutor’s office in the new draft Constitution. A comparative analysis of the distribution of powers and competencies between the Jogorku Kenesh (the Parliament), the President and the Government under the existing Constitution and the new draft was presented.

The next public meeting on the draft Constitution will take place on 7 May in Osh. These discussions, as well as the publication last week of 40,000 copies of the draft Constitution for public dissemination, are supported by the Centre in Bishkek within the framework of the OSCE contingency funds package allocated on 29 April by the OSCE Permanent Council to support peace and stability in Kyrgyzstan.

Direct link to the press release