Women’s empowerment and political participation are a matter of human rights. While the right to vote and contest elections is now widely available to women all over the world, the goal of gender balance in political institutions is still far from being achieved.

The Pacific region is no exception. Indeed, in this region, the level of women’s representation in parliament is among the lowest in the world. Even including Australia and New Zealand, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), women comprise less than 16 percent of all parliamentarians in the Pacific, fewer than in any other region.