The General Secretary for the Catholic Bishops conference in Port Moresby, Fr Victor Roche, is supporting the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill’s proposal to revive the 22 reserved seats for women bill in PNG’s 10th Parliament.
“There are 111 parliamentarians but shockingly all of them are men! There are no women. Our House of Parliament is a ‘Hausman’ (house of men)!” said Fr Victor Roche.
He is calling on all members of parliament including the opposition to vote for the proposal.
There are only 6 nations in the world where there are no women representatives in the parliament. PNG is one of them.
Roche questioned why women were undermined even though 48.9% of PNG’s population are female.
“Are there no worthy and capable women leaders in Papua New Guinea? Are only men capable of leading the country in PNG? “
Roche urged Women of PNG to “Believe in yourselves and in the leadership qualities of other women.”
He also called on the men of PNG to trust the leadership of women.
Meantime the United Nations Development Programme hosted a forum after the 2017 National Elections to address the lack of women in parliament.
Recommendations included revisiting legislative options, including the passing of a motion, to task a parliamentary committee to progress work for nominated women seats in line with section 102, of the PNG Constitution.