The thematic session “Before elections 2018” was held yesterday in Sarajevo, and the ambassadors and other representatives of the international community in BiH discussed the activities that the domestic institutions and NGO’s need to undertake with the aim to secure gender equality in both public and political life of BiH.
All attendees agreed that BiH has strong women who need to get more involved in politics.
The new head of the OSCE Mission to BiH, Ambassador Bruce G. Berton, stated that everyone in BiH should get involved in solving the issue of gender equality, not just women.
“We need to understand that it is our obligation to leave the world in a better state for our future generations,” said Ambassador Berton.
“The Council of Europe, together with the authorities at all levels in BiH, is preparing a new action plan that will include several activities on the plan of engaging women in political and public life of BiH. Some of them are: electoral assistance on how to promote female candidates for the functions, how to secure bigger media space for them, how to support the Agencies for gender equality and to encourage “gender centers” in the territory of FBiH and RS with the aim to identify women discrimination better and to find some better solutions for issues that are related to violence against women and domestic violence,” said Deputy Head of Office of the Council of Europe in BiH, Toni Pavlovski.
“It is very important to talk about gender equality today. We cannot forget that BiH is well-known for very strong and capable women, those who are real leaders. There is no reason or excuse for these women not to have larger influence on the politics in BiH. If BiH wants to be economically productive and strong, to build bridges within the society, it will need a much stronger role of women in the society. Our message is very simple. If we want to change the future, we have to change the present as well. Gender equality is not an option or a possibility, but an obligation,” said Sonders.
(Source: klix.ba)
