This workshop, which was organized as part of the activities of the UN-INSTRAW Project “Strengthening governance with a gender perspective and women’s political participation at the local level” financed by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID), gathered representatives from gender institutions, academic institutions and international cooperation.
During the event ACOBOL and the Association of Councilwomen of Ecuador (Asociación de Councilwomen from Ecuador - AMUNE) signed an agreement to coordinate awareness-raising actions to fight against harassment and political violence. According to the agreement, the two associations will promote the exchange of experiences and an active and effective participation of women politicians at the local level.
“Since the year 2000, ACOBOL has worked on the formulation and approval of a law against violence and political harassment of women in Bolivia that was recently presented to Congress for its approval. Due to the seriousness of the last political violence events that occurred in Bolivia, we hope that finally, this law will be put into effect. In this context, we want to give our support to Ecuador so that a similar law will be implemented to sanction harassment and political violence”, declared Ana María Encina, President of ACOBOL.
UN-INSTRAW has given support to women in local governments in Bolivia through the formulation and application of a strategic plan to strengthen governance with a gender perspective; the handling of information and communications aimed at increasing women’s political participation at the local level; and strengthening capacity-building with a gender perspective for women in politics and in municipal administration.
“During the second phase of UN-INSTRAW’s Project, concrete products were developed by elected women and their organizations in the training and communication areas. Among those products are: training modules in Information and Communication Technologies - ICTs) for rural women in Ecuador and 8 radio information programmes for councilwomen in local governments in Bolivia”, stated Claudia Ranaboldo, Coordinator for the Andean Region of the Project “Strengthening of governance with a gender perspective and women’s political participation at the local level”.
ACOBOL registries, a survey made with 96 councilwomen from 35 municipalities and 30 in-depth interviews between 2003-2004, reported that 65% of councilwomen from large urban municipalities in Bolivia, 32 % of medium-sized municipalities, 24% of small municipalities and 22% of those with less than 5,000 inhabitants, declared that they were victims of political harassment (source: ACOBOL).
Moreover, political violence against women in Bolivia has increased during the last 7 months. At present, ACOBOL has approximately 200 cases, 60 of which have occurred recently.
Read the results of the Online Forum “An Opportunity to Identify Common Issues in the Political Agendas of Latin American Women” by UN-INSTRAW
[Available in Spanish]
Cimac News: Women politicians in Latin American municipalities confront political harassment
[Available in Spanish]
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