“The active engagement of all citizens is a continuing challenge for elected officials on both shores of the Mediterranean,” said Carla Dejonghe (Belgium, ILDG) at the Mid-Term Conference of the PARFAIT project (Women’s Participation for the Advancement and Innovation of Tunisia) held in Tunis on November 14, 2018.
After complimenting the participants in the PARFAIT project on their “courage, dedication and determination”, she underlined Tunisia’s commitment to greater participation of women in public life, as reflected in the Tunisian electoral law, which imposes strict vertical and horizontal parity conditions.
Ms Dejonghe said that gender equality and women’s participation issues had been at the heart of the work of the Congress for more than 20 years, and that “this work, although carried out in Europe, has a universalist scope, as do the core values promoted by the Council of Europe”.
“The Congress is convinced that enhanced dialogue between both shores of the Mediterranean is the key to more equitable globalisation for all”, she said, pointing out that the Congress had already been actively engaged in co-operation activities with Tunisia in 2017.
“There is still a long way to go, but you can count on us, the female elected representatives in Europe, to support you wherever necessary, not as teachers but as friends who are facing the same difficulties,” she said.
This conference was followed by a session for exchanges between Tunisian and European elected representatives, in which Constance de Pelichy (France, EPP) and Valérie Hayer (France, NR) also took part.
The PARFAIT project (November 2017 – October 2019) is being run by the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA), in partnership with the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and the Tunisian Coalition for Women.
