Forum told women faring poorly in Pacific politics
Updated
A legal forum has been told the Pacific region has the lowest percentage of women in politics and shows no improvement, despite two decades of global activism.
In a keynote address at the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development in Bangkok, Papua New Guinea MP Dame Carol Kidu, said of the eight countries in the world which have no female members of Parliament, five are in the Pacific.
They are the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Vanuatu has just two women in parliament, while Tonga, Marshall Islands and PNG each have one.
The National newspaper says Dame Carol told the forum, contemporary culture in the Pacific still favours men politically, socially, economically and administratively.
She has urged women's organisations and female politicians to use her statement as leverage for affirmative action in their own countries.
