Female Domination Continues in Rwanda Parliament for Efficient and Wise Decision Making

It’s been time and again proved that the women of the world do not need special rights but equal rights. The same has been proposed by the women rights activists who are all ready to welcome the next set of Chamber of Deputies of the Nation. In fact, as per some sources, the number of women will be more than men. The reason behind this decision seems pretty much logical. The Lower House of Rwanda is assumed to get a lot of help due to this reason. There are many gender sensitive issues that are extremely important to the society. All of them need to be handled and responded with the enactment of the law.

Going by the results of the last Parliamentary elections, women are to secure 61% of the seats in the Lower House. Now the question lies in the fact that what will the women activists expect to see in the coming days. Needless to say, the expectations are high over the women dominated Parliament of Rwanda. As per the reports shared to the leading dailies, in terms of laws there’s an opportunity to pool in more equal options that will bring women and men on the same spectrum with equal opportunities and rights.

Twese Hamwe is the executive secretary of Pro-Femmes which is one of the leading women related NGOs in Rwanda. Emma-Marie Bugingo said that the trend will continue. Just like before a number of gender-sensitive laws and new policies were passed by Rwanda’s women domineering Parliaments which have shown results. In one of the interviews she mentioned, “We need to keep enacting gender-sensitive laws and ensure that laws that have any gender gaps are revised.”

She commended the nation's past Parliamentary decisions that contained a noteworthy contribution of a number of ladies for having ordered vital laws that have been given equivalent attention ensuring the rights of people in numerous territories. From incorporating family and marriage-related issues, avoidance of sexual orientation based brutality, to maternity benefits- are few among many notable works.

Chantal Umuhoza, a women's rights activist and founder of a space for young feminists called Spectra, who presently works with various associations to propel ladies political cooperation in administration forms, said that the approaching ladies Parliamentarians need help to address various issues. Spectra prepares young Rwandan women's activists to voice out their issues and the wrongdoings of the society on the basis of gender discrimination. She mentioned that the new ladies as MPs are relied upon to speak for the well-being of residents' voices, particularly those of ladies.

She insisted on the fact that the female MPs have greater responsibilities upon them. On one hand, they will have to hold the position of respect that is being bestowed upon them. Next is, they need to give special attention to specifically tackle issues that are persistently disturbing women and young girls since a long time and here being women they need to be more cautious about the sensitivity of the situation. The only task would not just be enacting laws for the betterment. But at the need of the hour, there will be situations as such where they will need to challenge the existing government ministries and various other implementing agencies. These might be the required steps to plan something new or fix a budget that will handle the issues.

Some of the persisting issues are increasing drop-out rate of young ladies from schools because of adolescent pregnancies, the absence of prevention from sexual orientation-based savagery which is also known as gender-based violence or GBV. As per experts, a lot has to be done that includes the planning and budgeting. As per reports, the budget has got the burden of unpaid work, done by girls and women.

On the light of the above-stated fact, Umuhoza likewise said that ladies' constrained access to financial resources is because of high financing costs, high esteemed insurance and restricted control of the property. She said that the ladies who will be holding positions of MP in the coming days will have to work hard on implementing reproductive rights of women. She suggested decriminalizing abortion completely as she believes the choice of being a mother should be solely on the mother and that is not a part where the law should intervene and force anyone. The women should get enough access to contraceptive pills as well as emergency contraceptive methods.

She also said, “New MPs should be associated more with citizens’ voices, especially of all those women. They need to always go back to them and listen to their issues. New women MPs should not only enact new laws but also demand an accountability on the implementation of those laws and analyze the situation to what extent the laws have been able to reach the desired impact.”

Jean-Léonard Sekanyange, the chairperson of the Rwanda Civil Society Platform said that the country's next Parliament will be something to look forward to. There will be an active enactment of laws. The real-life challenges faced by the families of the Rwandan society needs attention and that will be taken care of by the new laws. He mentioned that women are “wise people” and would be able to make better decisions.

As per his thoughts, women are able to deal better with family issues. They are strong enough to handle societal and family pressure and still keeping a balance. This would be helpful for decision making at the grassroot level. The Rwanda Parliament has a complete belief on women and that can be clearly told from the fact that it is one of the leading countries with the maximum number of female candidates and the record is same since a decade now.