IPF/OSI-2001
Program Fellow (Continuation Project)
April
20, 2003.
1.
Project Implementation.
Development
of political parties situation in Kazakhstan, peculiarities of multiparty
system, now are mainly defined by law “On Political Parties”, which
was adopted in July 19, 2002.
According
to this Law, a political party must have members in its content not less than
50,000. And not less than 700 members in each region of the country in order to
be registered. Come from these terms, membership in parties must be fixed. In
addition, if a party would not be participated at least at two elections in
Parliament, it’s anticipated that the party would be closed. It is
prohibited establishment of parties on the ground of professional, racial,
ethnical and religious belonging, as well as activities of political parties of
non-Kazakhstan countries.
Adoption
of the new law is brought to automatic dissolution of all 19 political parties
existed by those time. Unfortunately, I did not start the project implementation
yet, and parties’ dismissal is deprived me of research objectives.
Results of political parties registration have become known only now, at
April 14. Just 7 parties have been finally registered.
Women’s
party was not registered due to some violations of registration procedures.
Nevertheless, women will continue their efforts on party restoration.
That’s why name of the party was changed into “El Arna”
(“People Dedication”). In order to achieve the necessary number
(50,000), men also were invited to be its members. Such men should be agreed
with party’s social directions and women’s priorities.
Under
these circumstances, all my efforts I made to work with librarian and archive
recourses. I studied evolution of political system in Kazakhstan beginning from
independence of the republic, made analysis of women’s involvement in
parties work, and women’s impact on political platforms and strategies of
development. All platforms are enclosed to the research.
Further,
since role of women in Kazakhstan parties was not clearly enlightened and
analyzed, I made analysis on ground of indirect conclusions. On the ground of
interviews with women – members of Parliament and local elective offices (Maslikhats),
I made a social portrait of a woman-leader.
Analysis
has been displayed strong and week parts of women in politics and would make
strategists further to correct elective platforms of women, to define line of
women-parliamentarians’ political behavior.
Further,
I intend to work accordingly the Project Time-Table: make interviews with new
registered parties and make conclusions based on these interviews. I hope
I’ll manage with working plan in time.
Draft
Policy Paper is written partly due to the same reasons were mentioned above.
Therefore I have not translated this partial Draft into English. The reason, due
to mainly research has not been done, and main conclusions are not ready,
recommendations are not developed yet.
2.
Participation at the Ninth International AWID Forum (October 3-6,
Guadalajara, 2002).
AWID’s (Association for Women's Rights in
Development) International Forum is the largest international summit on gender
equality outside of the United Nations system. Every three years, the AWID Forum
provides an unparalleled opportunity to develop strategies, share ideas, build
skills and provide support for all to advance gender equality and social
justice. The past nine Forums, held since 1982, have attracted as many as 1,300
policy makers, practitioners, researchers, grassroots activists, students and
business people from over 100 countries.
Hundreds of leaders, scholars, and practitioners gathered in Mexico from October
3-6, 2002 to consider not only the economic, but also the political, social,
ecological and cultural implications of globalization. Together they strategized
for viable alternatives to the unsustainable, undemocratic and exploitative
forms of globalization. During more than 150 content-rich workshops, plenaries,
skills-building sessions and debates, women and men from all over the world
analyzed current approaches to economic and political change and strategized on
how to ensure their ideas are translated into concrete actions in the years to
come.
AWID Forum - a community of women and men from around the world, assembled to
strategize for a better future for women everywhere. The 2002 Forum focused on
one of the most urgent issues facing gender equality work: How can we reinvent
globalization to further the rights of all women? The Forum succeeded in
engaging those who are part of the growing resistance against globalization and
those who see some of its potential benefits.
Participation in the workshop:
"Advancing Women’s Political Participation: Challenges,
Successes, and Lessons Learned”. In
this workshop, chaired by Barbara Limanovska (Poland), panelists discussed the
dynamics of women’s political participation and strategies for substantive
increases in women’s leadership as decision-makers. It is particularly
cogent to focus on women’s political participant because the realm of
politics has been marked by both significant under-representation of
women-politicians and the exclusion of gender issues. Furthermore, negative
consequences of globalization (e.g. economic exploitation) aggravate
women’s lives in poorer countries, especially when strong political
commitment and will to implement gender equality are absent. It is possible,
however, to make globalization processes support social justice through the
democratizing local, national, and international spaces. Such democratization is
inherently political and therefore recent developments with respect to
women’s political participation are key. These developments include the
more purposeful attempt at bringing qualified women to power in the last decade,
promoting women’s issues in political agenda, the introduction of quotas
for women in government offices, more organized and larger-scale election
campaigns, gender education and lobbying.
Among others, I presented an analysis of current gender
policies in Kazakhstan, including the role of grassroots women’s
organizations in making women’s issues more visible and promoting their
inclusion in governmental policies. Noting the various levels at which women
must mobilize, she also stressed the importance of educating and preparing women
politicians to pursue feminist policies. Thereafter, Veena Nayyar reminded us of
our desire for meaningful participation as decision-makers, and not simply
passive observers of the political arena. Highlighting the strategies used to
found Women’s Political Watch in India (which led to a 33% quota locally),
she noted the need for women and men to be spokespersons for women’s
increased leadership and the ways in which this effectively disarms the male
voices of opposition to women’s right to share in power. Underlining the
unofficial affirmative action processes which privilege men’s access to
power through informal male networks, she asserted that we must not apologize
for targeted measures such as quotas in our attempts to advance women’s
leadership in politics.
Jasna Trifunovic spoke of the Serbian feminist group
“Women’s Vote–Voice of Difference”, the only
women’s group in the region that specifically aims to promote
women’s political participation. Reporting on a recent pre-election
campaign in Serbia, for which they created regional training networks with women
from NGOs, the media, and women’s organizations, she noted their success
in engaging an unprecedented number of women and putting many women’s
issues on the agenda.
In a joint brief, Jackie Steele and Nancy Peckford
highlighted the apathy of the Canadian government over the past 10 years towards
social and economic policy choices that negatively impact on women’s
equality. Underlining the systemic under-representation of women and men of
diverse backgrounds, they asserted their discomfort with the view of Canada as a
model for democratic practices. In an attempt to generate pressure for electoral
reform towards a system with elements of proportionality and concrete mechanisms
to enhance the voice of underrepresented groups, the National Association of
Women and the Law of Canada will be hosting a Roundtable Consultation in 2003.
Finally, María José Lubertino discussed the issue of
quotas for political office, and presented the Argentinean experience in
establishing the laws and constitutional framework for a secure quota system
grounded in the theoretical notions of substantive versus formal legal equality
guarantees. The success of the 30%-70% quota can be noted by its adoption at the
provincial level, as well as the increased currency that a feminist agenda has
generated in the multiple spheres of mobilizing.
In addition I attended workshops on different topics:
Gender & Education, Women and Violence, and others.
I met few participants with similar topics of research.
We changed some ideas and new information, particularly, on women’s
achievements in political parties in different countries. I also bought books:
Women in Political Parties…
3.
Conferences in Astana: In March 5, I traveled to Astana to take part at the
Women’s Conference organized by UNDP/UNIFEM and the National Commission on
Family and Women under the President (NCFW). The conference discussed outcomes
of the three years’ joint project of UNDP/ NCFW and Sweden international
NGO under SIDA support. Within frames of the Project, members of the NCFW,
including myself, of deputy’s group “Otbasy”, and some NGO
leaders, visited different Swedish organizations working on gender issues.
Such meetings were particularly useful for parliamentarians have being
worked on introduction of gender mechanisms into legislation.
Series of educational seminars were held in many cities of Kazakhstan.
Women of Kazakhstan observed elections to European Parliament. Now those women
consult other women, who want to be elected into local elective offices and
Parliament. If in prior elections only 12% of women were elected into
Parliament, it’s anticipated, in elections of 2004 situation would be
different.
4.
My both mentors work closely with me. The first mentor, Gulnara
Akhmetzhanova, in addition to consulting, helped me with obtaining information
on political parties and access to academic archives and hiding materials. The
second mentor, Irina Chikalova, though she started to consult my research
recently, also made some useful corrections (see her Mentor Form), and now is
developing thorough recommendations, based on her rich experience, on further
continuation of the project.
6. Financial report I'll submit via DHL in few days by the end of April.