Election round-up- Where do the parties stand on women's rights?

The Parliamentary election takes place on the 17th and out of 255 members of the country’s 15th parliament, 195 members will be chosen by the public and the rest will be nominated by those voted in.

In the past Rajapaksa has neglected the issue of women’s rights, his brother Chamal’s statements on World Women’s Day last year, suggesting that violence against women is their own fault still works against him.

If he becomes Prime Minister, the development of women’s rights in Sri Lanka could be hindered, despite women making up 52% of the population.

In contrast, Sirisena campaigned for ‘A New Sri Lanka for Women’ in January.

On page 16 of Sirisena’s manifesto, ‘A Constitutional Amendment Guaranteeing Democracy’ he addresses women’s rights specifically, it says:

“Maximum action will be taken to prevent the abuse of women and children that has grown to unbelievable proportions in the country due to the wrong actions of people of all walks of life. I will provide facilities to speed up and end in a short span of time the trials related to these offences. Thereby I will act to completely stop the abuse of Women and children.”

The Tamil National Appliance appear to be conservative in their approach to women’s rights.

Women's rights activist Shanthi Sachithanandam said Tamil parties are not doing enough to help improve women’s rights.

In her view the UNP is progressive, they want more political representation for women, they have a special programme regarding violence against women and they want to work with women who are heads of households.

She said “there is no stigma against women in politics but men in the Tamil parties don’t want to give up their seats.”

According to the most recent Inter- Parliamentary Union statistics on women in parliament, Sri Lanka ranks 128 out of 140.

The Chairperson of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the National Committee on Women, Ms. Swarna Sumanasekera said “We want well-educated women who can contribute to the social and national development of the country’s economy to be nominated and elected into the new parliament’’.

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