An activist has decried the shrinking number of women’s representation and participation in the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU).
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Monday, Edmund Yakani, the executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said that they realized a trend in which women have been removed from office and replaced by men thus infringing on the 35 percent affirmative action allocated to women.
“We saw that the former minister of foreign affairs, Beatrice Khemisa, was removed and replaced by a male and we have seen the Speaker of the Jonglei State Legislative Assembly, Amer Ateny Alier, was also removed and not yet replaced and now we have seen the Defense Minister Angelina Teny removed,” he said. “We are worried that all these seats will be replaced by men and that amount to an attack on the 35 percent slots for women.”
According to Yakani, the 35 percent affirmative action slots should be maintained in reshuffles and or changes in government.
“I would like to call upon the political leadership of the country that we are seeing some of the actions being taken. We are not against reshuffles but if you reshuffle a woman she should be replaced by another woman otherwise it is an attack on 35 percent,” he said. “I would like to say 35 percent in these three case studies is under attack and we do not want these attacks to continue. We need to see it immediately addressed before we take steps in terms of advocacy and lobbying for more meaningful women participation at all levels of government.”
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