Address of Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, Speaker of the House of Representatives, at Inauguration of the Morocco-EU Countries Forum of Women Parliamentarians

Honorable Speaker of the French National Assembly and dear colleague, Ms. Yaël Braun-Pivet

Esteemed ladies, members of the friend legislative assemblies and the Moroccan House of Representatives,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased that the last political and institutional activity through which we conclude the Institutional Twinning Project is devoted to a noble matter that unites our societies, falls at the heart of human rights, and binds the development of societies. I am here referring to the question of gender equality and parity, which was one of the major components of the Twinning Project.

In this respect, I am joyful to inaugurate alongside you the proceedings of the Forum of Women Parliamentarians, in which participate women parliamentarians from the various national legislative institutions taking part in the Twinning to discuss the means for implementing cooperation, exchanging experiences, and exploring the national practices in implementing equality in legislative institutions, and in representative and executive decision-making positions in general, and through it, seeking to achieve equality in public life.

Indeed, this political and institutional empowerment sought by the democracies worthy of the name is not the ultimate objective. Instead, it should be an institutional lever and entry to women's economic, political, and social empowerment.

The presence of women in public responsibilities, private enterprises, political parties, and civil society organizations must reflect the principles of equality and parity, which is not only a legitimate right and aspiration, but also an opportunity to defend women's human rights, redress the injustice and discrimination against them in society, and confront the physical, financial, and symbolic violence other women undergo. 

There is no doubt that you are in a position that enables you, and your colleagues of other parliaments and within executive decision-making positions, to engineer national legislations, public policies, and social services in a way that always takes into consideration the criteria of gender equality, and even adopt positive discrimination in favor of women sometimes.

This mechanism was highly efficient in the case of the Moroccan House of Representatives as it resulted in a 24.30% representation of women within the House, while they represent one-third of the members of the local, provincial, and regional territorial authorities in large cities and they enjoy a significant representation within smaller ones in terms of population.

Honorable Speaker,

Ladies and gentlemen,

The road to full equality is arduous and lengthy. However, it must always remain a common aspiration of both women and men, and in different institutions. Besides, we must build on accumulation in the institutional and legislative reforms that would lead us to achieve this objective, noting that the hurdles to this aim are not always of legislative or political nature. On the contrary, social concerns and cultural representations usually join hands with economic conditions to obstruct this quest.

Hence, legislative institutions must become examples and models for anchoring equality and offering opportunities to women who have always shown acclaimed giving and productive and qualitative efforts in parliamentary action, as well as within representative and legislative institutions in general.

As per international stats, the percentage of women’s representation in parliaments has grown from 11% in 1995 to 25% in 2023 as a global percentage. Although this figure shows a substantial increase in the female presence in parliaments, it still indicates the magnitude of the challenges we still have to address. The United Nations mentioned in 2011 that “There are far too few women in the political scene around the world, which is majorly due to gender-based laws, practices, behaviors, and stereotypes.”

What mirrors this image is that out of 44,303 parliamentarians worldwide, only 11,970 are women, meaning that we are still far from achieving the objective of equality in political empowerment, which requires collective reflection, the sharing of practices on the legislations related to this objective, and the creation of networks of women parliamentarians, knowing that the battle for equality is not one for women alone.

I hope this Forum will serve as a space for free dialogue that foresees the common future in a decisive question for our societies.

I thank you for your keen listening and wish you success in your proceedings.