WSJ: U.N. Report Backs India Push for Quotas

Click here to read this on WSJ Blogs: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/10/01/u-n-report-backs-india-push-for-quotas/

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India ranks 109th in terms of women’s representation in the lower house of the parliament.

Only 11% of seats in India’s Lower House of Parliament are filled by women, one of the lowest ratios in the world and half of China’s ratio.
The Congress party-led government, and especially the party’s president, Sonia Gandhi, believes the answer is to set aside – by law – larger number of parliamentary seats for women.

Supporters point to quotas introduced two decades ago reserving seats for women at village council level elections, a measure they say has boosted female representation and – as a result – increased the focus of these bodies on issues like sanitation and water.

Critics of quotas, though, have blocked attempts to set aside legislative seats for women at a national level. Some complain the proposals will push more higher-cast women into politics, leading to greater underrepresentation of lower-caste groups.

Others say the key is first to improve education of women, so they don’t become proxies for male relatives under a quota system, which has happened in some cases at the local village – or “panchayat” – level.

A new report by the United Nations Development Program, released last month, gives backing to the supporters of a broadening of quotas.

The report looked at eleven countries in the Asia-Pacific region that introduced laws to reserve seats for women in lower houses of parliament.

It found that between 2000, before any of the countries introduced these laws, and 2010, the proportion of women in these legislatures jumped by 10 percentage points on average. Even factoring in other reasons for this rise – say, improved educational opportunities for females – the report estimated the quotas led to a 5- percentage-point rise in the representation of females in these parliaments.

“The uses of reserved seats for women members or gender quotas for candidates generally expand women’s representation,” the report said.

India could look at its neighbor Nepal, which revised its quotas in 2007. In the decade to 2010, the proportion of women in its lower house of parliament rose to 33% from 6%.

These kinds of measures mean Nepal now stands at 21^st position on this global survey ranking countries in descending order of women’s representation in lower houses of parliament. While Nepal was one position above Germany, India was in 109^th position, tied with Liberia and the Ivory Coast...

Click here to read full article on WSJ Blogs: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/10/01/u-n-report-backs-india-push-for-quotas/

GAP report: - “Tipping the Scales: Is the United Nations Justice System Promoting Accountability in the Peacekeeping Missions or Undermining It?”

Click here to read this @ G.A.P - Whistleblower.org:  http://www.whistleblower.org/program-areas/gap-reports/tipping-the-scales

This GAP report analyzes the impact of the United Nations internal justice system on accountability practices in the UN peacekeeping missions. The GAP report, “Tipping the Scales: Is the United Nations Justice System Promoting Accountability in the Peacekeeping Missions or Undermining It?” is based on a review of two years of UN Dispute Tribunal (UNDT) and UN Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) judgments, and 36 interviews with key UN personnel, external attorneys and whistleblowers from eight different peacekeeping missions.

"Virtually every person in a UN peacekeeping mission whom we spoke with raised disturbing concerns about fundamental shortcomings in the UN’s accountability mechanisms," said GAP International Officer Shelley Walden, one of the report's authors. "Most stated that they were afraid to speak-up about misconduct, and whistleblowers who did told us that they were subjected to intense retaliation as a result.”

A copy of the report's Executive Summary can be downloaded here.
A copy of the full report can be downloaded here.
Read the Press Release here.

Annexes to the report can be downloaded here:

• Annex I: Problems with the New Justice System (As Identified by Respondents)
• Annex II: What’s Working Well in the New Justice System & Recommendations for Improving It (As Identified by Respondents)         
• Annex III: Problems That Respondents Raised Regarding Whistleblowing
• Annex IV: Issues Connected To Discipline of Those Who Engaged In Misconduct in the Field & Suggestions for Addressing Misconduct in Peacekeeping Missions (As Identified by Respondents)         
• Annex V: Methodology
• Annex VI: UN Dispute Tribunal Judgment Chart from July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2011 (each year has a separate tab)
• Annex VII: UN Appeals Tribunal Judgment Chart from July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2011
• Annex VIII: UN Administrative Tribunal Judgment Chart from July 1, 2007 – December 31, 2009