Sarajevo Open Centre has sent a letter yesterday (September 8) to Dragan Čović, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which it welcomes the decision of the Presidency to accept the invitation of the President of People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping and the Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki-moon to participate in the meeting of world leaders on gender equality and women’s empowerment: commitment to action (UN Women), which will be held in New York on 27 September this year.
By accepting to participate in this important event, the Presidency has shown the will to integrate the principle of gender equality in all areas and at all levels of government in our country, and on this occasion we invite them to initiate and/or support initiatives to:
- introduce mandatory quotas for both sexes in the executive and legislative branches, so that by 2018 not a single body has less than 40% of the under-represented sex;
- increase economic activities of women, so that women’s participation in the labor market increases every year for a minimum of 3%;
- establish a Public Fund for Child Protection of FBiH, modeled on a similar fund that exists in Republika Srpska;
- support and fully implement the activities envisaged Framework strategy for the implementation of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the period 2015-2018.