South Sudan’s SPLM fosters women’s representation

Addis Ababa, March 11 (WIC) - South Sudan’s ruling party has said it intends to increase the mandatory percentage of women in the SPLM from 25 percent to 35 percent in order to empowering women so that in the future they will be able to compete with men on an equal basis.

The Deputy Speaker of South Sudan’s National Legislative Assembly, Daniel AwetAkot told Sudan Tribune on Saturday that the country had "formulated laws that promote and protect women rights".

Akot thanked and appreciated the enormous role which women played during South Sudan’s decades of liberation struggle for equality, respect for diversity and equitable power and wealth sharing against successive Khartoum-based regimes from where it seceded in 2011 under a 2005 deal.

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement stated that 25 percent of senior positions in the Government of South Sudan should be filled by women.

Women in South Sudan currently make up approximately 30 percent of the legislature, with more than 25 percent holding ministerial positions. Government statistics show that in the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State Legislative Assembly there are more women than men.