Luveni Tables Gender Push at Meeting in Vietnam
She is accompanied by Assistant Minister for Health, John O’Connor
Dr Luveni, accompanied by the Assistant Minister for Health, Alexander O’Connor, reiterated the Fiji delegation’s support towards making the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians a permanent feature of the APPF.
Fijian Parliament Speaker, Dr Jiko Luveni, attended the Women Parliamentarians’ Meeting of the 26th Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF) held on Thursday a day before the main annual APPF.
The women’s meeting was chaired by the Vice-President of the National Assembly of Vietnam, Madam Tong Thi Phong. The keynote address was given by the President of the Vietnam Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
Dr Luveni, accompanied by the Assistant Minister for Health, Alexander O’Connor, reiterated the Fiji delegation’s support towards making the meeting of women parliamentarians a permanent feature of the APPF.
She also briefly talked about the Fiji Parliament’s initiatives on addressing women’s issues, which she has taken a strong leadership role in. These included the Parliament’s Standing Order 110(2) that requires parliamentary committees to undertake gender analysis when undertaking their legislative, oversight and scrutiny work. In addition, Parliament had published a gender toolkit to assist MPs and committees undertake gender analysis. Meanwhile, the APPF executive committee, which is responsible for matters relevant to the management of the event, was also convened where Fiji was nominated by the Oceania group to become a member and was represented by Mr O’Connor and Minister for Youth and Sports Laisenia Tuitubou.
This was after the Japanese delegation proposed draft amendment of the APPF Rules of Procedure to include the women’s meeting as a permanent event of future APPF meetings.
The 26th APPF was officially opened at the National Assembly of Vietnam yesterday. Four plenary sessions on politics-security, economics-trade, regional cooperation in Asia-Pacific, and the future of APPF were on the agenda.
Thirty-four bilateral meetings are scheduled to take place on the side-line of the main meeting. Source: Parliament of Fiji
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj