NHRC urges Government to boost women's participation in international forums

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 28 October 2021

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the government to boost women's participation in international forums and key events such as peace talks, global security, foreign trade, and climate change.

It has urged the Ministry of External Affairs to implement a gender-inclusive hiring pattern, including gender quotas if necessary. The NHRC stated, “For this, monitoring of foreign policies needs to be done for gender balancing of skewed ratios, wherever found,” the NHRC said.

The NHRC's Core Group on Women, which met on September 14 to review women's underrepresentation in international forums, made the recommendations.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the ministries of external affairs, personnel, women and child development, and the NHRC.

The attendees highlighted that the country had no policy on women's involvement in international forums. According to the meetings, even the Draft National Policy on Women 2016 lack any component that supports women's participation and representation at international forums.

The group requested that the Ministry of Personnel include a specific policy component on women's international engagement in the Draft National Policy and establish a working committee to investigate structural difficulties.

Some members noted that women from fields other than foreign service officers have few opportunity to represent India on an international level, such as at UN bodies. Women have not been nominated for the job of Sherpa at the G20 to date, according to them.

Women entrepreneurs in the MSME (micro, small, and medium businesses) sector also have limited opportunities to contribute to India's foreign trade policy.

The group requested that the Ministry of Personnel include a specific policy component on women's international engagement in the Draft National Policy and establish a working committee to investigate structural difficulties.

Some members noted that women from fields other than foreign service officers have few opportunity to represent India on an international level, such as at UN bodies. Women have not been nominated for the job of Sherpa at the G20 to date, according to them.

Women entrepreneurs in the MSME (micro, small, and medium businesses) sector also have limited opportunities to contribute to India's foreign trade policy.

The NHRC has requested that the MSME ministry encourage women entrepreneurs on a global scale.

Since India is a Non-Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council, the NHRC believes that a deeper commitment to gender mainstreaming at the policy level should be prioritised.

It requested that the ministry of education develop a revised curriculum to teach in schools and colleges about the contributions of 15 women who served in the constituent assembly, in order to raise awareness about gender equality among students.