Gender Resource Centre will Enhance Equality for
Parliamentarians in Timor

Dili, East Timor, 7 October 2008: Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao inaugurated  the country’s first  Gender Resource Centre (GRC) - Centro de Estudos de Genero (CEG) at a ceremony attended by members of  the diplomatic community, UN and development agencies as well as the general public.  

Addressing the crowd at the opening ceremony, President of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama de Arujo reaffirmed the parliament’s commitment to the attainment of gender equality and women’s empowerment in East Timor.  “Gender equality and women’s empowerment is everyone’s responsibility”, Mr Araujo said.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Timor-Leste, Atul Khare said: “The establishment of the Gender Resource Centre reflects the seriousness with which the Parliament considers gender issues and its view that women’s political representation does not start and end with the technical fulfillment of the electoral law.” He added that the GRC creation is linked to the fulfillment of the UN Mission mandate of consolidating democratic governance, peace and stability in the country.

 The GRC aims to equip women and men parliamentarians with knowledge to enable them to advance the national agenda on gender equality irrespective of their party affiliations. It will focus on integrating a gender perspective into the work of the National Parliament through capacity development, research, training and networking.

Maria Paixão Da Costa, Vice President of the National Parliament who is also President of the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus, said women will only feel fully emancipated when there is a substantive degree of gender equality. “The liberation of our country will remain incomplete until total and unconditional empowerment of women and gender equality is achieved."  She noted that although there is 30% representation of women in parliament, there should be efforts to ensure that women hold key positions in the legislative body.

Jointly supported by UNDP’s parliament project and UNIFEM through its Integrated Programme for Women in Politics and Decision Making, the GRC was established through the initiative of women’s parliamentarians’ caucus – Grupo das Mulheres Parlamentares de Timor-Leste (GMPTL). Funding was made available by the governments of Norway, Sweden and Australia.

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