Shazia Z. Rafi is, since 1996, secretary-general of Parliamentarians for Global Action, an association of more than 1,300 individual legislators from 118 national parliaments. PGA programs promote peace, democracy, justice and sustainable development around the world. As a direct implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action, PGA became the first parliamentary organization to appoint a woman as secretary-general and to amend its constitution with a 60:40 gender rule for executive committee elections. She writes this essay as her personal commentary, not as a PGA representative. |