Tempo fa ho conosciuto una straordinaria ragazza-Teodora Krumova.Lei è bulgara di origine rom.Educata, istruita, rispettata come donna e come professionista.Ho chiesto la sua opinione competente su un progetto su cui sto lavorando e in questa occasione lei mi ha dato un testo che ha scritto sui diritti delle donne.Vorrei che le sue parole raggiungano il cuore di più persone, provocando una riflessione profonda...
Roma and Majority Women in decision-making
(the case of the European Commission and Bulgaria)
Teodora Krumova
...inequality and gender discrimination and under-representation of women still persist in politics and in public and private institutions, in Europe and worldwide, in spite of a large number of political statements and recommendations
Resolution on women in decision-making, 3 February 2000/B5-0180/2000
Although the European Commission has adopted a policy of gender mainstreaming and the incorporation of equal opportunities, women are still under-represented in decision-making bodies, including those, established by the Commission. In this respect situation is regulated by several acts, starting with the Council Recommendation on the promotion of positive action for women (1984) going through the Recommendations on the balanced participation of men and women in the decision-making process (1996) and the Commission Decision (of 19th June 2000) envisaging at least 40% of members of each sex in every expert group and committee of the Commission. Nevertheless, the participation of women in European institutions is still around or under 30%. The average percentage of women in the governments of all Member States and EEA countries is 24.5% and 22.5% in the national parliaments, varying from 6.3% in Greece to 43.6% in Sweden. The number of women in committees preparing decisions is even lower. A considerable number of committees do not have even one woman (Germany ). At the same time a number of affirmative actions have been provisioned by legislation. In Austria, the 1993 Federal Equal Treatment Act allows the preferential treatment of women in certain areas where they are under-represented (i.e. less than 40%). A legally binding promotion program for women in the college/university sector was adopted in 1995. The Greek Parliament has unanimously accepted a revision of the Constitution allowing positive action. All of the main political parties in Austria and Germany have committed themselves to increasing the numbers of women on party lists and in public positions, partly through quotas, partly through targets. The same approach was taken by Italy in 1993, introducing binding quotas for the electoral lists. It is only in Belgium that legally binding obligations require political parties to have gender balanced lists of candidates, so that all parties must give one third of their list positions to women. Unfortunately, one can hardly see the place of Roma women in all these provisions. The OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality extensively addresses the issue of ensuring equal opportunity for participation of women in political and public life. It however just briefly mentions minority women without providing any special measures or recommendations concerning them. The picture from the pre-accession countries and Bulgaria particularly does not provide more optimistic impression. Bulgaria is a signatory to the United Nation’s conventions on the rights of women. Equal rights and the principle of non-discrimination are enshrined in the Bulgarian Constitution (1991) although the Constitution does not explicitly provide specific regulations on gender or ethnic equality. In 1996 the Council of Ministers approved the Bulgarian National Plan of Action in implementating the commitments of the Republic of Bulgaria undertaken at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) which sets measures for the achievement of real equality and the development of women in all spheres of social life. The Plan also states the need for institutional mechanisms to ensure equal opportunities for women and men. The results of the implementation of the Plan achieved so far are mainly on behalf of the nongovernmental sector. At present in the Bulgarian Parliament there is no commission dealing with gender equality. Instead these issues are within the responsibility of the Commission for Human Rights and Religion. The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is responsible for gender issues at governmental level. Since March 2004 a specialized Sector on Gender Equality within the Policy of Labour Market Directorate has been functioning. On March 25, 2005 a Law against Domestic Violence was passed. Since the beginning of 2004 an Anti-Discrimination Law has been in force. On April 13, 2005 finally the Anti-Discrimination Commission was established by the Bulgarian Parliament. The fact however is that at present (several months after its establishment) the Commission is still not constitutes completely. All these measures however envisage no provisions towards equal participation of Roma women. Few are present only in the Framework program for Equal Integration of Roma but lack in all following documents, including the Decade national plan. At the same time, Roma women in Bulgaria are still underrepresented in political life. Although, an increase of women presence in politics has been registered during the recent years there is no Roma women in Parliament. In the local government after the elections in 2003 Roma women occupy around 13% (compared to Roma men) and only one Roma woman is a municipal deputy mayor. And while there was an attempt of positive actions for increasing the political participation of majority women, no such actions have been undertaken for Roma women. In the campaign for the Parliamentary elections, the leader of the Bulgarian socialist tried to introduce a 30% quota system for women at elective positions in the lists. There was however strong opposition from the local structures and the proposal was refused. Finally, the number of 30% was achieved but including women and youth together. From one side this shows that women as political figures are still not very popular yet at the local level. From another side, the example points to the conclusion that a quota system in these terms is hardly accepted even among majority. It is difficult to promote Roma women higher participation through changes in the legislative basis. This would meet strong opposition from both, right and left parties: right parties traditionally stand behind the conception that no collective, but only individual rights should be considered, but left parties tend to perceive the issue only as socially and not ethnically based. Therefore, the activities in that direction should not target general changes but the different responsible actors. Recommendations: 1. Broad public campaign targeting the public opinion should be developed. The campaign should be built around positive images with changing the terminology of quotas and affirmative actions (which automatically raise the barriers) with that of “providing opportunities”. 2. Consistent work should be carried out individually with the different institutions and political parties involving different influential and popular public actors. This work should be oriented towards changing the attitudes and establishing a provision system for Roma women participation. 3. Affirmative actions should be directed not towards providing collective rights, but promoting individuals. Important job positions at the national level: A Roma woman should occupy a high position (deputy-minister) at the Ministry of education and at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Regarding the latter she should be responsible about social protection and social integration including child protection not only for minorities but for majority as well. After the changes in the Council of Ministers regarding minorities, a Roma Department has been established. It could be headed by a Roma woman. The other two positions should be in the Anti-Discrimination Commission and the Ombudsman institution concerning again issues related not only to Roma but majority in general.
Posted by elena-angelova
in Diritti delle donne
at
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