“Uniting Generations For Gender Equality” – Marianne Mikko’s Keynote in Lima, Peru
Saturday, 13.09.2025, 22:42 / SEISUKOHAD / RSS
Eleventh Inter-Parliamentary Union Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians “Uniting generations for gender equality” 11-13 September 2025, Lima, Peru Marianne Mikko’s keynote address.
Your Excellency President of the Republic of Peru!
Honorary members of Parliament, senior and junior, women and men!
Dear Friends!
It is a great pleasure to be here among and in front of you. As a MEP and a MP myself with 13 years of parliamentarian experience I cannot imagine a better place to be at the moment than at the IPU Conference “Uniting generations for gender equality” in Lima. I feel extremely honored and privileged making me humble and determined at the same time. Thank you, the organizers of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the host country the Republic of Peru, for inviting me to this very timely conference.
I hope that we can remember the world famous slogan from Beijing Women’s Congress 30 years ago “women’s rights are human rights”. It is all about democracy. But not only! It is about equality, equity, efficiency and even about empathy. That is true, we cannot exclude half of the world’s population as far as decision-making is concerned. As a Vice-Chairperson of the UN CEDAW Committee I proudly hold, among other duties, the position of the focal point of the IPU. I value this status very much. It is so important to follow and if needed, to give some guidance about our Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against women to parliamentarians all over the globe. Our Committee is a watchdog of the convention, ratified by 189 State Parties.
We, the 23 elected independent experts from all over the world, are mandated to periodically have all-day-long constructive dialogues with governmental delegations. For me personally the most valuable articles to cover are 4, 7 and 8. States parties’ obligations under Article 7 cover all areas of political and public life. Article 8 further guarantees women’s rights to represent their governments at the international level and participate in the work of international organizations. Briefly – they are focusing on the representation of women in decision-making. Article 4 focuses on temporary special measures or gender quotas.
As matter of fact, all parliaments have made a big step: globally, the percentage of parliamentary seats held by women has risen from 11% in 1995 to 27% in 2025. How should we assess the current stage of play? Is this to say the glass is half-full as the figure of female MPs more than doubled within 30 years? Or can this situation be described with a sentence, glass is half-empty, as we cannot report that we have achieved the 30% target? Neither nor. Let me tell you why. The target of 30 percent representation of women in decision-making is incompatible with the Convention’s core aim of elimination of discrimination against women, as these convey a message that inequality between women and men is JUSTIFIABLE.
Last year our UN CEDAW Committee adopted General Recommendation 40. This is something we are very proud of. We can say that GR40 is revolutionary. We call upon all member states to achieve representation with six letters P- A-R-I-T-Y. In other word the target in the 21 st century is not one third but “half of sky, half of earth, half of population, half of power”. Parity in our terms means 50:50. I count on you, the young generation! Because you are coming of age at a time when there is greater equality and awareness than previous generations. Generational progress toward equality needs to be supported.
General Recommendation 40 relies on seven pillars of equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems. One of the pillars, the second one in this hierarchy is “young people’s effective leadership conditioned by parity.” Young people are recognized as critical agents of positive change, fulfilling their own potential and ensuring a world fit for future generations in the 2030 Agenda and the Pact for the Future. However, gender inequality between girls and boys and young women and young men compromises their role in the construction of a better world.
Furthermore, existing approaches to youth engagement often view young people as a homogeneous group, reinforcing social norms and structures that perpetuate inequality. A transformative approach to young people’s engagement is required to reach parity in decision-making for current and future generations. Parity is essential to ensure that young people can effectively build a peaceful, equal, inclusive and sustainable world that responds to their demands, implements their rights, ensures youth co-leadership, intergenerational solidarity, and enables them to anticipate and overcome crises.
Youth, and young women in particular, are underrepresented. At the intersection of ageism and sexism, young women aged 30 and under make up only 1.4% of the world’s MPs, despite making up about 25% of the world’s population. This underrepresentation is not merely a matter of numbers; it represents a democratic deficit that can undermine the legitimacy and effectiveness of parliaments.
The Convention on the Political Rights of Women grants women equal rights to vote, run for office, and hold public positions without discrimination.
Patriarchal norms often limit women’s opportunities to accede to senior levels of decision-making where they would be able to drive and influence agendas. Distribution of decision-making roles also often reflects patterns of gender segregation. The allocation of ministerial portfolio, for example, tend to be based on assumptions about stereotyped male and female responsibilities. Equal and inclusive representation in decision-making means that all portfolios are accessible to women and men at all levels of representative government. It also means re-valuing and prioritizing issues, as well as ensuring parity across issue areas.
To create more inclusive forms of governance, States should open pathways and remove any obstacles, reverse the increasing closing of civic space, ensure rights protection, and provide financial support and capacity-building, to women’s and girls’ organizations and women human rights defenders. It’s all beacause women can substantively participate in all fields of decision-making, including but also going beyond issues narrowly perceived as ‘women’s issues’. Support should also be provided to other organizations so that they integrate a parity system, and see it as their role and have the capacity to increase the representation and leadership of women.
I emphasize the vital role of civil society in leveraging youth contributions to hold member states accountable and strengthen the CEDAW mechanism of review. I also would like to highlight the importance of CEDAW’s forthcoming GR 41 as a key advocacy tool, noting that addressing stereotypes must go beyond awareness- raising to include legal and policy reform, documentation of advocacy efforts, and strengthened collaboration between civil society and UN agencies. I invite continued engagement with the draft recommendation, expected to be adopted next year, in October 2026, and highlight the need to document how civil society effectively uses CEDAW recommendations to advance accountability and justice.
In the beginning of this week hundreds of protesters broke into and torched the parliament building, smashing windows and spray-painting anti-corruption graffiti on the walls in Kathmandu. The parliament was set ablaze in Nepal. That is not the way to combat corruption. I condemn violence against democracy and the parliament as an institution is one of cornestones of democracy. In the beginning of the very same week the CEDAW Committee released an Advance Unedited text of the Addendum to General Recommendation 30 of the Women Peace and Security for public comments. I call all MPs to commend our addendum until December, 9th. In marking the 25th Anniversary of the WPS Agenda, this document builds on the UN Secretary General’s new Agenda for Peace and the response to the changing nature of conflict over the last quarter century since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
The Advance Unedited Addendum articulates a vision of renewed multilateralism in the field of women, peace and security, firmly anchored in international law and responsive to the conflict dynamics of a rapidly changing world.
UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its subsequent resolutions urge States to ensure the equal representation of women at all decision-making levels in for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.
In the Kigali Declaration adopted of 2022, IPU Parliaments committed to achieving parity in political decision-making. 1 I wish the Kigali Declaration will be taken seriously by all parliaments and implemented en masse as soon as possible. I wish the IPU upcoming Conference fruitful discussons and fundamental conclusions as far equality and equity are concerned.
Thank you very much!