Pacific Islands ranked low for women's political representation

Studies show that the Pacific Islands region is among the worst performing in the world for women's representation in parliaments.

The Pacific Island Forum Secretariat is to publish a book next month which analyses the barriers preventing women from participating in politics, said an official Thursday.

The Forum Secretariat's gender adviser, Samantha Hung, said figures from the Inter-parliamentary union indicate the extent of the problem.

"We're the worst performing region in the world alongside the Arab states. On the average, if you exclude French territories, is 4.1 per cent. The global average, at the moment, is 16.3 percent, I think but we're talking about a target of 30 percent that was set a very long time ago so we're very far behind both the global average and the global target," said Hung.

Hung said a number of temporary measures should be considered to fast-track women's political representation, including reserving seats in parliaments or voluntary quotas within party lists.

Source: Xinhua