Above: CWP Chairperson Hon. Dr Zainab Gimba with IPU President Hon. Dr Tulia Ackson

From 13 to 16 March 2025, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held its first Global Conference for Women Parliamentarians in Mexico City. The event was co-organised and hosted by the Senate of Mexico on the theme ‘From Mexico to the World: Let’s mobilize for gender parity!’ 

The Conference aimed to identify successful measures and strategies for advancing gender parity in Parliaments, share good practice and inspire action towards achieving equal participation and power for women in political decision-making. 

The Conference was attended by a delegation from the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Network consisting of CWP Chairperson, Hon. Dr Zainab Gimba, MP, Nigeria and Bénite Dibateza, CPA Programmes Manager and CWP Network Coordinator, as well as many Commonwealth Parliamentarians from across the CPA’s membership. 

Delegates attended panels and open debates on topics including strategies to engage men to advance gender equality, what can be learned from Parliaments who have achieved gender parity and tackling online and offline violence against women in politics. Panellists included several current and former Commonwealth MPs from Canada, New Zealand, Rwanda, Tanzania and the United Kingdom. 

Mexico is one of only six countries in the world to have achieved gender equality in its Parliament. Rwanda currently leads on this metric with 60% of its Parliamentarians being women. Mexico also elected its first woman President, Hon. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, in June 2024. She opened the IPU Conference by highlighting key initiatives that have emerged from Mexico as a result of gender parity in the country’s Parliamentary and Executive leadership, and said: 

“From here we tell the world that it is time for women. From here we celebrate this effort in favour of equal political participation for women from all corners of the world. We are women building peace, equality and universal fraternity. We are women building equality and justice. It is time for women because when one arrives, we all arrive.” 

Delegates were also welcomed by the IPU President, Hon. Dr Tulia Ackson, Speaker of the National Assembly of Tanzania, who spoke about the important role men can play as allies to ensure gender parity in Parliaments.

Learn more about the Inter-Parliamentary Union here. 

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The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) was founded in 1989 to increase the number of female elected representatives in 180 Parliaments and Legislatures across the Commonwealth and to ensure that women’s issues are brought to the fore in parliamentary debate and legislation. The network campaigns for gender equality in all spheres. For media enquiries, please contact communications@cpahq.org.