At Marrakech, Mrs Gwen Mahlangu, a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa, was elected President of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians. Interview.

"What I like about the Coordinating Committee and the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians is that most of the issues that were never addressed are now touched upon and it is making a difference"

Q: What is your objective as President of the Coordination Committee of the Women MPs of the IPU?
Gwen Mahlangu: Women MPs can do a lot of things. The world is facing many problems. Take the example of terrorism, the most topical issue at the present moment which occurs anywhere in the world. As mothers, and as people who remain with families, we have to make sure that our world becomes a peaceful world. Unfortunately, we have very few meetings in our two-year term in the Coordinating Committee, but we will try by all means to keep in touch to make sure that we make women's issues more topical, that we unite our continents and that we find ways of making sure we support and give solidarity to our sisters who are in worse situations than ourselves.

Q: Do you advocate a conference on female genital mutilation as a follow-up to the panel organised by the IPU and the Parliament of Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou?
G.M.: Yes. The African leadership at the IPU, together with the IPU has agreed to host a conference this year. As Coordinating Committee, we will be working very closely with them, as we did in Ouagadougou (see The World of Parliament N°4) . We want to have an ongoing debate. We have recommended that national groups also put this as a topic for discussion, so that we can have resolutions coming from different countries.

Q: Do you think that the motion that was adopted here in favour of Mrs Safya Hussaini could help her situation?
G.M.: If the whole world of parliamentarians who are public representatives are requesting that she should be pardoned, we expect her to be pardoned. And we expect that such sentences, in future, are done away with. Because they are not only barbaric, they are against human life. That is an abuse of human rights and women in positions like ours should always be able to find solidarity amongst us. And we are very proud that the motion was raised by Belgium on behalf of the developing countries and it was well received by the Nigerian delegation.

Q: Do you think that men MPs could participate more in the debate of the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians?
G.M.: I think that dialogue among men and women is very good, because in most cases we think for them and when they are there and they speak, they make a difference. Mr. Farouk Cassim from South Africa is a very good example. He participated in Ouagadougou in the Panel on female genital mutilation and made an excellent contribution. As well as Mr. Fall from Senegal. We are asking these few gentlemen to make sure that other men are brought on board. We are going to have a very dynamic discussion in Chile [ where the 108th Inter-Parliamentary Conference will take place in April 2002 ] on our contribution as women to the economies of the world because that is also a good contribution that is never spoken about. Our role is not only to make food in the kitchen, and so on. We contribute to the economy and we want a discussion between men and women about this. Why are men silent about it? Why can't they give us the recognition we deserve?

Q: During the 108th Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Santiago (Chile) you are going to organise a panel on trafficking in young girls. Can you elaborate on that initiative?
G.M.: Girl trafficking is a problem in the whole world. When we spoke about it in the Coordinating Committee no country was against it because they know what it means. We think that children are not physically ready for the exercises the men put them through and we feel that no one should be allowed to traffick with human beings, let alone children, and we want to go further and declare a decade for the protection of the girl child from 2003 to 2013. This point was put to the Coordinating Committee and it was well received. What I like about the Coordinating Committee and the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians is that most of the issues that were never addressed are now touched upon, and it is making a difference.

Eradication of FGM

During the 107th IPU Conference in Marrakech, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the African Parliamentary Union invited men and women MPs from those countries where female genital mutilation is still entrenched, as well as from countries of emigration for nationals of these countries to a session on legislation, programmes and good practices to be promoted in response to this complex phenomenon and on the ways to reinforce cooperation between their respective countries. The session was a follow-up to the panel held in Ouagadougou in September 2001 (see The World of Parliaments N°5). Participants agreed to work towards a possible convention on the eradication of FGM and asked the IPU and the APU to organize a parliamentary conference. A group formed by the following parliamentarians was established to coordinate preparations for that event, which should bring together MPs, religious and traditional leaders, NGOs and former practitioners of FGM: Ms. Karin Andersen (Norway), Mr. Elias Bare Shill (Kenya), Mr. Abdou Fall (Senegal), Ms. Rebecca Kadaga (Uganda), Ms. Gwadabe Khairat Abdul-Razaq (Nigeria) and Ms. Marion Roe (United Kingdom) (Visit our page on the Parliamentary Campaign: Stop Violence against Women).