13:00 to 15:00 CET

The fight to achieve the full and effective participation of women in decision-making positions on an equal footing with men is making slow progress. Women still account only for 26.9% of parliamentarians worldwide and continue to face many obstacles aimed at discouraging or removing them from political life. Among these obstacles, violence against women in politics – that is, any act of violence against women for political reasons, because of their involvement in politics or in political activities – is one of the most devastating.

The work of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on sexism and violence against women in parliaments has brought to light the nature and magnitude of this discrimination, long invisible, which seeks to silence women and exclude them from political life. Three IPU studies confirmed that sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments was very widespread – between 80% and 85% of the women MPs surveyed by the IPU indicated they had faced some form of psychological violence during their term in parliament.

These studies showed that women and men can be subjected to different and mixed forms of sexism and gender-based violence that may be aggravated by various factors, including age.

To shed light on these issues of concern and mobilize young parliamentarians around needed solutions from both a gender and a youth responsive policy-making perspective, the IPU is organizing an online briefing on zero tolerance for violence against women in politics.

This briefing is part of the IPU’s Empowerment Series for young MPs and is being organized within the framework of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

Simultaneous interpretation will be available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic.

Background documents:

• IPU, Sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians (2016);
• IPU and PACE, Sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments in Europe (2018); 
• IPU and APU, Sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments in Africa (2021). 
• IPU and OSGEY, Call to Action- On young women’s political participation and leadership
• IPU, Youth participation in national parliaments (2023)