{"id":65707,"date":"2016-03-10T00:57:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T22:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/eu-joins-somalia-in-commemorating-international-womens-day\/"},"modified":"2016-03-10T00:57:17","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T22:57:17","slug":"eu-joins-somalia-in-commemorating-international-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/eu-joins-somalia-in-commemorating-international-womens-day\/","title":{"rendered":"EU joins Somalia in commemorating International Women’s Day."},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 9, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — <\/span><\/p>\n

Dozens of Somali leaders including first lady Zahra Omar Hassan, Minister of\u00a0Women and Human Rights Development Sahra Samatar, Minister of Health Hawa Mohamud and\u00a0Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mahad Abdallah Awad joined the EU Ambassador to Somalia, Michele\u00a0Cervone d’Urso, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC)\u00a0to Somalia Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira and the Acting UN Resident Coordinator for Somalia,\u00a0George Conway, in celebrations to mark International Women’s Day in Mogadishu with a strong\u00a0statement for women empowerment and emancipation in Somalia.\u00a0Somali civil society actors, the EU, UN and AU representatives, Somalia Federal and Regional\u00a0government officials, members of the Somalia Federal parliament and other influential public\u00a0figures\u00a0including women leaders, took part in a well-attended panel discussion to review and explore the status\u00a0of Somali women in politics and their role in state building, peace building and reconciliation, with a\u00a0specific focus on women representation in 2016 Electoral process as well as the 30 percent women\u00a0quota in power sharing.\u00a0In his opening remarks, EU Ambassador to Somalia, Michele Cervone, urged the panelists and\u00a0participants to recognize the selfless struggle Somali women go through and their achievement against\u00a0great odds. He invited to critically examine the huge challenges they still face and chart a way forward\u00a0for Somali women to fully participate in Somalia’s future. The Ambassador reminded the participants\u00a0that gender equality is at the core of European values enshrined within the European Union legal and\u00a0political framework.<\/p>\n

“I applaud every one of you here today for your work for women’s empowerment and gender equality in\u00a0Somalia, because gender equality is not only a question of social justice but it goes hand in hand with\u00a0peace and development. We need to urge all stakeholders both at Federal and Regional levels to promote\u00a0meaningful inclusion of women in their governments and organizations if indeed they are to achieve\u00a0equity and prosperity because women are the backbone of society,” Ambassador Michele Cervone said.<\/p>\n

The panel discussed challenges women face in realising their potential in Somalia and heard from\u00a0inspiring leaders and gender champions on the best way to overcome them. It pointed at the need to\u00a0increase women participation in politics in the upcoming electoral process so to be able to shape up\u00a0policies and enforce existing laws.\u00a0In a joint communique issued at the end of the panel discussions, Somalia women leaders acknowledged\u00a0the steps taken by the Government to improve the status of women. However, they called upon the\u00a0government to do more by increasing women’s participation in politics and in top decision making\u00a0positions in order for women needs and issues to be properly addressed. They called on the Federal\u00a0Government to come up with a fair formula that spells out women\u2019s equitable representation in the 2016\u00a0election process and that an agreed quota system be prescribed by law before July 2016. They also\u00a0urged all actors involved to fully consult with women on possible electoral models currently under\u00a0revision and to ensure that women be consistently present at the table throughout the course of the\u00a0Constitutional review process.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 9, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — Dozens of Somali leaders including first lady Zahra Omar Hassan, Minister of\u00a0Women and Human Rights Development Sahra Samatar, Minister of Health Hawa Mohamud and\u00a0Deputy Speaker of Parliament Mahad Abdallah Awad joined the EU Ambassador to Somalia, Michele\u00a0Cervone d’Urso, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-65707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}