Report on the Annual Gathering of the Group of Women Parliamentarians
15
The Women’s Parliamentary Group in El Salvador: Working
Across Party Lines
Ms. Escobar, Member of the Legislative Assembly, opened by recounting the last 50 years in El Salvador, which were characterized by intermittent periods of warfare and peace, with varying levels of democracy. She pointed out that a country at war does not put its resources or energy into women, despite women’s intense suffering during conflict. Women’s human rights had been harshly neglected in her country. After the signing of the peace accords in the early 1990s, the stage was set for a modern democratic state; El Salvador began to remedy its destitute human rights situation, signing international agreements, and establishing or reforming institutions.
According to Ms. Escobar it has only been in the past five years that real gains have been made for women at the national level. She outlined the progress made in the legislative sphere, and noted the creation of the
Commission for Women and Gender Equality and the Institutional Gender Unit.
She highlighted the critical role played by her parliament’s Women’s Parliamentary Group. In the context of a post-conflict country with a deeply polarized and adversarial political environment, it was groundbreaking for women from all political parties to participate in this group and collaborate on a common agenda.
They led the recent passing of two important pieces of legislation in support of gender equality: the Law of Equality, Fairness and the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2011, and the