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The government’s decision to block key proposals from the Presidential Constitutional Review Commission aimed at empowering women and youth is likely to spark a politically divisive debate.
The presidential commission tasked with reviewing and recommending changes to the constitution has proposed several key measures to increase participation and empowerment of women and youth in various fields, The Guardian has learnt. The recommendations include affirmative action policies, quotas for political representation and targeted economic empowerment programmes.
However, surprisingly, the government chose to reject the proposals, citing a number of reasons including budget constraints and concerns about feasibility.
The government rejected the commission’s recommendation that political parties should field 30 percent women candidates in primary, local government and parliamentary elections, saying the problem could be addressed by other means, such as a system of selected councillors.
The government also argued that this did not guarantee the election of women and that the only way to ensure representation was through the Specially Elected Members of Parliament (SEMP) system.
The committee also recommended that termination of pregnancy should be legalized, giving women the right to terminate their pregnancy or not. They rejected this recommendation, saying that Article 160 of the Criminal Code provides for termination of pregnancy in certain circumstances and conditions, including rape, threat to the life of the pregnant woman and mental disorder, and that Article 160 of the Criminal Code could be reviewed to expand the circumstances in which termination of pregnancy is permitted.
The committee also recommended that the government introduce unemployment benefits to address youth unemployment. The government disagrees with the committee’s recommendations on this issue because the relevant departments should conduct more research on this and come up with relevant solutions to address the unemployment problem.
On a related issue, the committee also recommended that adequate allowances be paid to members of Village Development Committees (VDCs), farmers’ associations and Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs). The government disagreed with the committee’s opinion on the grounds that VDC members can get allowances and the allowances can be reviewed from time to time, but the role of VDCs in rural development must be clarified and the criteria for appointing VDC members must be determined; this will have a huge financial impact and it will be difficult to determine whether the allowances are sufficient; farmers’ associations are voluntary and there is no need to provide allowances as this goes against the spirit of voluntarism.
There was also a suggestion that the minimum wage should be constitutionalized and brought in line with international standards. The Government rejected this suggestion, saying that the minimum wage was already provided for in the Employment Act and its subsidiary legislation and did not need to be included in the Constitution.
During the consultation period, the public presented a proposal to the Commission to reserve 30% of seats for young people in the National Assembly and Parliament, but the Commission did not support this proposal. The Government also agreed with the Commission that young people could be represented through special elections and that 30% of seats would result in a large number of seats reserved for young people, as 30% of seats in Parliament would be equivalent to a total of 17 specially elected members, and young people would not be excluded from political activities. The Government stated: “Their lack of political participation, including failure to vote, is a separate issue that can be addressed and the participation of young people should be done at the party level. Parties should be able to facilitate young people to advance from the party level to senior political positions.”
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