The Gibraltar Parliament will be hosting a CPA conference of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians this week. 

A statement from CPA Gibraltar Branch follows below:

Gibraltar is a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and, within the  association, forms part of the British Islands and Mediterranean Region (BIMR). Twenty  delegates from parliaments in the region will be in Gibraltar from the 4th to the 7th  October for the annual regional CWP conference. Gibraltar will be represented by  Samantha Sacramento MP and Marlene Hassan Nahon MP. 

Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians was founded by women members of  parliament with a mandate to discuss ways of increasing female representation in  Parliament as well as to work towards the mainstreaming of gender considerations. As  such, the CWP network provides a means of capacity building of women elected to  Parliaments.  

The theme of this year’s conference is focused on attracting and retaining more women  parliamentarians and will also look at online harm and online safety. Building on ongoing  engagement, the Conference explores how parliaments across the region are  responding to the escalating problem of online harms. The programme includes tailored  practical training for women parliamentarians on digital self-defence, digital citizenship,  assertive communication, and safety responses to online abuse. It also looks at the UK’s  draft ‘Online Harms Bill’ and the lessons learned from the UK’s legislative pathway to  protect against online harms. The programme also includes sessions focussing on  Gender Sensitive Parliaments, asking if parliaments are doing enough to respond to the  changing demographics of their elected representatives.  

Hosted by the Gibraltar Parliament, the conference programme has been organised by  Samantha Sacramento MP in conjunction with the CPA Regional Secretariat based in  London. The BIMR established a regional CWP steering committee in 2013 and women  Parliamentarians have enjoyed close ties since then. Minister Sacramento has been a  member of the Regional Steering Committee since its inception. In March 2020, at the  beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, Minister Sacramento was also elected CWP Chair  of the BIMR Region, this meant that Minister Sacramento formed part of the CWP  international steering committee, the tenure lasted until the main regional conference  earlier this year. 

The first regional CWP conference was held in Edinburgh in 2014 and the second  conference was hosted in Gibraltar in 2015. As Minister Sacramento was the regional  Chair last year she hosted the 2021 conference which was a virtual one. This week will  be the third time that Gibraltar hosts a regional CWP conference. 

In addition to the invited speakers, there will be other guests attending the conference.  Mr Stephen Twigg, CPA Secretary General and the Honourable Dr Zainab Gimba MP,  Member of the Federal Parliament of Nigeria and Chair of CWP international will be  attending and addressing the Conference. The CWP elected Chairperson chairs a  steering committee made up of the regional Chairs and forms part of the CPA Executive  Committee. 

Additionally, and making the most of the opportunity of having such a high number of  women parliamentarians in Gibraltar this week, an outreach session has been organised  to enable women who may be interested in political life to enable them to meet and  speak to other women who are in parliament who they may not ordinarily be able to  access thereby enabling them to learn from the experiences from other women  parliamentarians. This event will take place from 4pm to 6pm on Thursday 7th October  at the Convent and attendance is by registration only, anyone interested in attending  can do so by registering at [email protected]

Speaking about the conference, Samantha Sacramento MP said “The CPA is always an  extremely useful network where we can learn and exchange ideas with parliamentary  counterparts. The CWP has the specific focus of supporting women parliamentarians  and it provides an exciting opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the  region to compare approaches to the challenges that we facewith the common ambition  to attract and retain committed and effective women parliamentarians. In line with the  CWP mandate and my commitment to the further the equality agenda locally, I wanted  to use this opportunity of having so many women parliamentarians in Gibraltar to help  us address the issue of the acute underrepresentation of women in parliament by  providing a unique event for women in Gibraltar who are interested in politics to join  like-minded women meeting other women politicians so they may learn from each other  and encourage other women to look at politics and feel like they also belong. The aim is  to promote discussion of political life locally and hopefully this will serve as one more  tool to encourage more women to stand for election at the next opportunity. I have  reached out to the political parties and asked them to invite women in their membership  to the outreach event. 

“For a conference to be successful it is important that it be substantive and productive,  planning and organising has required a lot of effort as there are many logistics in play. I  would like to thank the Speaker, Clerk and staff at the Gibraltar Parliament and the  Ministry for Equality for their work on this. The conference programme has been  organised and co-ordinated by the CPA UK Secretariat and I thank them too for all their  work.”