Somali women lawmakers root for gender-sensitive laws

MOGADISHU, March 2– Somali women lawmakers ended a three-day
conference in Mogadishu late Wednesday by resolving to push for laws
targeting the protection of the rights of women, children and marginalized
groups.

The legislators from both the House of the People and Upper House also
vowed to work together in pushing for gender-sensitive laws after the
electoral process that increased the number of women lawmakers from 14
percent in the 2012-2016 parliament to 24 percent in the current
parliament. “Somali women have a lot of potential and the key to unlocking
that is recognition and support. If they get the right support, they can do
a lot for their society, the country and all the rights that we are
demanding now,” a member of the House of the People Fawzia Yusuf Adam told
the forum. “It will be easy because if their capacity is built, they can
understand that they can join the parliament and they can fight for their
rights.”

A statement issued at the end of the meeting by AMISOM said on Thursday
that the lawmakers resolved to apply the knowledge gained from the workshop
to formulate bills and push for enactment of laws that will improve the
lives of women and children. “We have been undergoing three-day training
and the objectives of the training were met, the participants from both
houses achieved their goals. The training was useful,” said Shukri Aden
Mohamed, the Chairperson of the Women Caucus of the Upper House. Mohamed
said the legislators were also taught how to lobby their fellow
parliamentarians to support bills that will benefit their constituents.

Mina Hassan Mohamed, the Chairperson of the Women Caucus of the House of
the People, said the training was timely, given the number of new female
parliamentarians in the August House.”The training was extremely important
to us because being a parliamentarian is not only in the name but also your
ability to learn,” Mohamed observed. She noted that the knowledge
acquired will enable women parliamentarians to discharge their duties
effectively and also actively participate in the decision making process in
Somalia. The two chairpersons urged development partners to emulate AMISOM
by helping organize similar training workshops in federal states to benefit
women MPs in regional assemblies. AMISOM said that due to the elaborate
advocacy programs the mission launched by other development partners, the
representation of women in parliament increased to 24 percent in the 2016
electoral process, up from 14 percent in the previous parliament of
2012-2016 period. – XINHUA