Federation’s lone female elected representative to attend Women MPs of the World conference

Photo 1 Hon. Marcella Liburd

968/2018

By: Erasmus Williams

Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 6, 2018 – St. Kitts and Nevis’ lone elected female parliamentarian, Hon. Marcella Liburd will be among more than 10 female politicians from around the world celebrating the centenary of women first winning the right to vote in the United Kingdom.

Ms. Liburd, who represents St. Christopher 2 (Central Basseterre) in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly, will sit with Women MPs in the House of Commons for a landmark event.

Liburd, who has also served as Senator, Deputy Speaker, Speaker and a Minister in the lawmaking body, will be among the parliamentarians from 104 countries on the green benches. Liburd is also the first St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Deputy Political Leader and former Party chairperson.

Photo 2 – British Labour MP Harriet Harman, co-host and the mother of the House of Commons

The event will be co-hosted by the Labour MP Harriet Harman, the mother of the house, and the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has been invited to address the conference, though the prime minister’s attendance is likely to depend on travel plans during the November recess.

Ministers including Mordaunt, Andrea Leadsom, the Commons leader, and the constitution minister, Chloe Smith, are expected to attend, as well as the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, and the shadow equalities secretary, Dawn Butler.

The international political guests will include: the first female speaker of the Bangladeshi parliament, Shireen Sharmeen Chaudhury; Grenada’s health minister, Clarice Modeste-Curwan; the Brazilian indigenous rights campaigner Janete Capiberibe, who is a member of Brazil’s chamber of deputies; the Colombian vice-president, Marta Lucía Ramirez; and Bassma Kodmani, a prominent member of the Syrian opposition.

Everyone attending will be invited to make a personal commitment or action to fulfil in their home country.
Organisers said the conference aimed to celebrate the achievements of female parliamentarians, and discuss how to further empower female MPs to spearhead change both nationally and internationally.

Harman is keen to continue an informal network of female parliamentarians after the conference, joking to reporters that the international MPs could form a sisterly WhatsApp group to exchange ideas.

The event will address the hurdles that many women in politics face worldwide, such as dealing with sexual harassment and balancing parliamentary and family responsibilities, as well as wider issues such as economic empowerment of women and tackling violence against women and girls.

Mordaunt said the event would be an inspiration to committed women across the world, saying it would “celebrate their achievements, discuss the barriers to political life and develop new ideas to tackle gender inequality around the world.”

The event also aims to create an online networking platform for the women to keep in touch, although this will not necessarily take the form of a WhatsApp group.

The event was almost scuppered after the Conservative MP Christopher Chope shouted “object” when the motion to host the gathering was put to the Commons this year, but it was later passed after an intervention by Mordaunt.

Chope had previously been the subject of a separate row after he objected to another private member’s bill to make upskirting a specific criminal offence.

Leadsom said she was delighted the Commons chamber would be used for the event. “In the centenary year of votes for women, it is vital we work even harder to improve politics and policy for women, no matter where they are from,” she said. “I’m looking forward to taking part and discussing everything we are doing in the UK in this area.”

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