PARLIAMENT was yesterday asked by EU representatives to explain why there were no female members in the Cabinet.
Dr Anna Zaborska, the Chairman of the European Commission’s Committee for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, is currently in Cyprus with fellow committee members for a two-day visit, following an invitation by the Divorcees’ Association.
Zaborska spent the first part of her day meeting the Justice Minister, the House President and the House Gender Equality Committee, in a bid to get a general view of women’s position in Cypriot society.
In the afternoon she met with the Divorcees Association, where she listened to women’s problems first hand.
Zaborska was saddened to note that there were currently no women in the Cabinet, while her team also came to realise that Cyprus is currently very lenient in its penalties for human trafficking.
Regarding divorced women in Cyprus, the EU team said it appeared it was a “national sport” for men in Cyprus to leave their wives “up to neck in debt” following divorce.
Last year, divorced women turned to the House Human Rights Committee in a desperate bid to find solutions to the financial problems they were left with upon divorcing their husbands.
It emerged that a large number of divorced women were left with thousands – in some cases millions – pounds worth of debt after acting as guarantors for their husbands and being left to pay the debt. Some women have even faced jail, while in some extreme cases, the fathers have also left their children in debt.
Yesterday, the Chairman of the House Gender Equality Committee, AKEL’s Sotiroulla Charalambous, told the European team that for attitudes to change in Cyprus to enforce the principle of equality, it would need the coordinated efforts of the government as well as non-governmental organisations.
There are various sectors of society that suffer due to the lack of implementation of the law, Charalambous continued, such as the trafficking of women, the problems faced by divorcees and one-parent families and the problems faced by women immigrants.
“We need to set clear policies and strengthen legislation in a way that will respond to the problems faced by these sectors of society,” said Charalambous.
Besides further legal amendments, the committee head pointed out that Parliament recently passed a law that obliged employers to deduct child maintenance from the father’s wages; this was one of the main problems brought forward by divorcees.
But Charalambous stressed that the law should be put in action.
Dutch MEP Emine Bozkurt requested to be informed why there were no Turkish Cypriot women in Parliament.
The Chairman of the House Human Rights Committee, DIKO’s Sophoclis Fyttis, pointed out that there had been no Turkish deputies since the island was divided, but he expressed the desire for more participation once the Cyprus problem is resolved.
The issue of divorced women, he added, was something that occupied his Committee extensively last year, while discussions will resume after Easter, once the committee has received the relevant law proposals by Law Commissioner Leda Koursoumba.
He also cast a shadow of doubt over divorcees’ claims that their ex husbands left them in engulfed in debt, saying that there was currently no evidence to back the women’s claims. “Cypriots are sensitive,” said Fyttis.
Finally, he informed the EU representation that an action plan had been prepared to deal with human trafficking, adding that Cyprus was not often used as transit for victims.
House President Demetris Christofias, who had earlier met with the EU team, also stressed the need for better implementation of the law that was recently adopted to ensure the protection of women’s rights.
He too pointed out the need for more female participation in national decision making.
And Justice Minister Sophoclis Sophocleous, who is also head of the Mechanism for Women’s Rights, called on the European team to point out all the shortcomings and insufficiencies it has noted in Cyprus legislation for women’s rights.
