Catalan Parliament holds all-women session

The Catalan Parliament, with the collaboration of the National Council of Women of Catalonia (CNDC), held an all-women session at 5pm on July 1. Attendees included the chamber’s 60 female MPs as well as members of women’s rights groups.

Modeled on similar sessions held in Portugal, South Africa and Montenegro, the Women’s Parliament (or Parlament de dones in Catalan) seeks to strengthen ties between women’s groups and female MPs while also promoting the presence of feminist groups in politics, especially when it comes to sharing their knowledge with lawmakers.

The Women’s Parliament read and approved a declaration that addressed the need for a greater female presence in politics as well as denounced the discrimination that women suffer both personally and professionally.

24 years after the Beijing Conference

This Women’s Parliamentwill took place 24 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in 1995.

The women that took part in this session participated in 6 working groups coinciding with the Beijing Conference’s Platform for Action’s key themes: Women’s human rights, the right to education and culture, labor and economic rights, the right to political and social participation, health and sexual and reproductive rights, as well as the right to live a life free from sexist violence.