We, the participants of the Asia-Pacific Summit of Women Mayors and Councillors,
gathered here at the historic city of Phitsanulok, Thailand on 22 June
2001;
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1. Recalling the various global and regional mandates to increase
the representation and participation of women in power and decision-making
including:
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a) The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth
World Conference on Women 4-15 September 1995, especially the provisions
of Strategic Objective G.1 of the Platform for Action, to “Take measures
to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in power
structures and decision-making” and Strategic Objective G.2 to “Increase
women’s capacity to participate in decision-making and leadership”;
b) The outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General
Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace
for the twenty-first century”, namely the Political Declaration and
the “Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration
and the Platform for Action”;
c) The General Assembly resolution 55/71 of 4 December 2000
on the follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and full
implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General
Assembly;
d) The resolution 57/2 of 25 April 2001 of the Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on the Follow-up
to the Fourth World Conference on Women and the outcome of the Twenty-third
Special Session of the General Assembly;
e) The Call to Action for Full and Equal Participation and Representation
of Women in Politics, adopted at the Regional Conference on 50-50
by 2005: Get the Balance Right!!! held at Manila in March 2001;
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And recalling:
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f) The Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda of the
Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II),
held at Istanbul in June 1996, particularly Commitment D on Gender
Equality of the Habitat Agenda;
g) The outcome of the Twenty-Fifth Special Session of the General
Assembly, 6-8 June 2001, entitled “Review and Appraisal of Progress
in Implementation of the Habitat Agenda”, namely the “Declaration
on Cities and Other Human Settlements in the New Millennium,” adopted
on 8 June 2001, particularly paragraph 38.
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2. Reaffirm our commitment to the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), especially the
provisions of article 7 calling for State Parties to take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political
and public life of the country.
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3. We firmly believe that:
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a) Women’s rights are human rights;
b) Women and men have equal human rights, duties and responsibilities
as citizens; these include the right to be free of poverty, discrimination,
violence and particularly the right to participate equally in the
process of governance, including the right to vote, to hold both appointed
and elected office, and to participate in decision making at all levels
of government;
c) Local government should create inclusive systems in order
to legitimize involvement of women and community-based organizations
in public decision-making;
d) Many women, both urban and rural, face additional barriers
to the full realization and enjoyment of their human rights because
of such factors as their age, race, language, ethnicity, culture,
religion, disability, or socio-economic class, or because they are
indigenous people, migrants, including migrant workers, displaced
women or refugees;
e) Women’s equal participation in political life plays a pivotal
role in the betterment of society; without the active participation
of women at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality,
development and peace cannot be achieved;
f) The low representation of women in decision-making needs
to be addressed ; in particular local government, as the level of
government closest to the people, has a crucial role to play in ensuring
gender equality in society.
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4. We recognize that there are significant barriers to representation
and participation of women that include:
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a) Attitudinal and structural barriers to economic, social and
political resources;
b) Entrenched cultural and social norms and practices that place
women in subordinate positions to men;
c) Productive, reproductive and domestic responsibilities and
the unequal division of labour within household that limit the time
available to women;
d) Domination of men in politics and other spheres of life;
e) The perception in many countries that politics and decision-making
are the domain of men;
f) The rules and practices, including forms of discrimination,
within many political parties, government and local government organizations;
g) The high cost of election campaigns and the lack of access
to funds for that purpose;
h) Lack of access to information in appropriate communication
modes, training and support mechanisms;
i) Lack of access to opportunities and resources;
j) Gender-biased, negative attitude of media towards women
in politics;
k) Harassment and intimidation of women participating in the
political process.
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5. We recognize that strategies and actions are required to
increase representation and participation of women in local government,
not only to empower women themselves but for society to benefit from
women’s experience and knowledge, and for gender-sensitive and responsive
governance. These strategies and actions will vary from country to
country and may include:
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Systems
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a) Explicit time-bound targets for gender equality set by governments
to increase representation of women in local government;
b) Quotas for women in countries where few women have the opportunity
to be nominated, elected or appointed;
c) Ensuring that more women are recruited, appointed and promoted
in local government service;
d) Constant review of legislation to mandate women’s entry in
local government in adequate numbers and to remove barriers to their
effective participation in local government;
e) According the same power to all representatives, whether
holding reserved or general seats;
f) Electoral reforms that promote gender balance such as proportional
representation systems that incorporate party lists;
g) A ceiling on campaign spending;
h) Instituting consultation processes within local government
to provide women with improved opportunities to participate in decision-making
and governance;
i) Encouraging political parties to recruit more women members,
candidates and office bearers with the objective of achieving a 50-50
goal;
j) Ensuring that women representatives can participate effectively
in local government by organizing meetings at times and venues that
fit in with their other responsibilities and that are accessible to
women with disabilities;
k) Ensuring the incorporation of a gender perspective in local
government programmes, policies and budgets;
l) Annual reporting by each local government on the state
of women in their area for the purpose of policy formulation, implementation
and monitoring, including reporting on gender budgeting, where relevant.
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Empowerment
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m) Equal employment opportunity programmes to ensure that more
women, including those from marginalized groups, are employed in local
government, and affirmative action programmes to enable more women
to move into senior management positions;
n) Encouraging and promoting women to be role models;
o) Encouraging and promoting women and men to practice value
based politics and gender sensitive development;
p) Encouraging and promoting women to aspire to decision-making
positions in local government;
q) Ensuring that disabled women are not excluded from participation
in local government through lack of access or a failure to assist
them with physical or other special needs;
r) Establishing national and local media programmes to support
women candidates before, during and after elections and encouraging
media to promote a positive image of women in politics;
s) Ensuring the creation of arrangements and mechanisms that
would reduce the multiple burdens of women representatives and leaders
such as equal sharing of domestic responsibilities;
t) Special provisions in electoral bodies to monitor and prevent
harassment and intimidation of women participating in electoral processes.
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Networking
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u) Establishing and strengthening associations of women in
local governments to provide a base for networking and training;
v) Building networks among women in local government, non-governmental
organizations, government, community-based organizations, including
organizations of people with disabilities, and the media to develop
support mechanisms that strengthen women’s participation and leadership.
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Financial and Other Support
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w) Paying and providing facilities to elected representatives
at a level that will enable more women to participate and establishing
financial support systems for women candidates for local elections;
x) Establishing support systems for women in local government
including technical and financial support, childcare and continuing
encouragement.
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Training
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y) Providing training for women with political aspirations
in skills needed for campaigns, and education on local government
functions and processes;
z) Providing training for newly elected and appointed women
on local government systems and their governance roles, rights and
responsibilities so as to be more transparent and accountable to their
electorate.
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6. We acknowledge that:
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a) Women play a critical role as leaders and community members
in reducing poverty and in realizing accepted norms of good governance
as well as in facilitating conflict resolution and peace building;
b) Efforts to achieve gender equality in local government must
first be undertaken at the country-level, with support from the regional
and international levels;
c) The reports on the State of Women in Urban Local Governments
in 14 countries and the Asia-Pacific Summit of Women Mayors and Councillors
at Phitsanulok are the first important steps in the long journey to
achieve the goal of gender equality in local government;
d) The momentum created by the Asia-Pacific Summit of Women
Mayors and Councillors must be followed up by the preparation of more
in-depth State of Women in Local Government Reports at the country
level;
e) National summits of women in local government should be convened
(i) to develop country-level strategies, (ii) to establish country-level
networks of women in local government, (iii) to identify country-level
training providers and training needs, (iv) to advocate policy and
legislative changes, and (v) to mobilize the required human and financial
resources.
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7. We emphasize the importance of regional and international
initiatives in support of our country level actions to achieve the
goal of gender equality in local government. We call upon international
organizations, within the United Nations System, particularly ESCAP,
UNCHS (Habitat), UNDP/UNOPS, including their APGEN and TUGI programmes,
UNIFEM, the Asian Development Bank, the Asia Foundation, CITYNET,
LOGOTRI and other donor agencies and governments to assist us in implementing
the follow-up actions by:
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a) Establishing a regional resource facility to support country-
and regional-level actions;
b) Monitoring progress achieved in meeting the goal of gender
equality;
c) Advocating gender mainstreaming and gender equality in local
government as well as the transformative role that women play in local
government;
d) Strengthening country-level, sub-regional and regional networks
for promotion and exchange of experience and information and comparative
research. The regional networks should be rooted in networks at national
and local levels;
e) Organizing regional and sub-regional conferences and workshops,
in close collaboration with such networks as LOGOTRI and CityNet,
to provide training of trainers to assist women already in local government
as well as training of women aspiring to positions in local government;
f) Catalyzing resource mobilization at the country level,
where appropriate, to support training and research;
g) Identifying the benefits of having women in local government
through sponsorship of appropriate research so that this evidence
can be used to encourage further progress.
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8. We commit ourselves to increasing the representation and
participation of women in local government. In order to achieve this,
we commit ourselves to pursuing the implementation of the above strategies
and actions as they apply to our specific countries. We believe in
the equal access to and participation of women and men in politics
to achieve a more harmonious humanity, where men and women will share
equal rights and obligations, beginning in the family. We recognize
that our own commitment to these resolutions is vital to achieve our
goals. We seek the support of UN agencies, NGOs, governments, both
local and central, and people of goodwill to make a better, more equal
world for our daughters and sons.
