The final draft of the July National Charter that was sent by the National Consensus Commission to the political parties includes a total of 84 articles, spanning over 9,500 words.
Most prominently, the mention of women appears in the 24th article, which relates to 'Provision of seats for women in the National Parliament'. The total number of words in this article amounts to about 250.
Here, the word is mentioned nine times.
In the rest of the draft, it is mentioned only five more times, twice when describing the participation and casualties of the July Uprising.
They are also mentioned in sub-article (d) of the proposal for the formation of the Legislative Assembly in Article 21. It is stated that "political parties shall publish the list of candidates for the upper house at the same time as they publish the final list of candidates for the general election to the lower house. The list must include at least 10 percent women candidates."
In the context of appointments to the Anti-Corruption Commission, Article 58 states that at least one out of five members shall be a woman.
The word appears again in Article 76, titled 'Increasing the number of Commissioners of the ACC'. Here, it says that the number of Anti-Corruption Commissioners, including at least one woman, will be increased from three to five, by amending Section 5(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
'Provision for women's seats in the National Parliament'
The main proposal of the 24th article states that provisions will be made to gradually increase the representation of women in the National Parliament to 100 seats. The Commission also said that 29 parties and alliances have agreed on this.
The proposals given by the Commission in the draft charter are mainly divided into two parts – reserved women's seats and increasing women's participation in direct elections.
Reserved women's seats
Proposals have been given under sub-articles 'a' and 'e' of Article 24 regarding reserved women's seats. Sub-article 'a' states that necessary amendments will be made to Article 65 (3) of the Constitution while maintaining the existing reserved seats.
Sub-section (e) states that, while continuing reserved seats for women in the National Parliament as stated in the constitution, the term of the reserved seats for women has been extended by 25 years through the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, which was passed by the Parliament on 8 July 2018.
This is estimated to remain in force until 2043. However, if the target of 33 percent women candidates get nominations from political parties in the general elections before 2043, the provision will be repealed before the stipulated time.
Participation of Women in direct election
A major proposal of the charter is to increase the number of women who are directly elected as candidates to Parliament to 33%. To achieve this target, each political party has been asked to nominate women candidates for at least 5% of their 300 seats in the first general election after the signing of the charter.
At the same time, it has been proposed to increase this rate by a minimum of 5% in every election until the rate of directly elected women candidates reaches 33%.
These proposals have been sent by the NCC to political parties and will be finalised based on their opinions.
The commission says that its main objective is to ensure both gender equality in the state structure and women's participation in the decision-making process.
The commission said that 26 political parties and alliances agree on this issue. However, three parties have given notes of dissent, namely Aam Janata Dal, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal.
When asked about their objection, CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince told Stream, "We do not agree with what is in the July Charter. The number of women's seats should be increased to 100 and direct elections should be held. We will not accept anything else."
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