Parliament heads to meet in capital

Global summit of women Speakers to include their male colleagues.

FNC Speaker Dr Amal Al Qubaisi said the aim of the summit was to build agreements with all bodies. Delores Johnson / The National

ABU DHABI // Organisers of a global summit of female parliamentary leaders have decided to bring the men in as well.

Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, who last year became the first woman in the region to lead a national assembly when she was elected Speaker of the FNC, on Tuesday said the aim of the summit was to build agreements with all bodies.

“As women, we don’t believe we should be talking in closed halls, we should talk with all people, so this global summit will target all challenges,” Dr Al Qubaisi said.

“The most important political alliance we can come up with is for people to know us face to face.

“Today the UAE is the friend of many countries and so will the FNC be a friend to many other parliaments.”

The Global Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament will be attended by about 50 speakers, and 800 business leaders and academics.

Dr Saber Chowdhury, president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, said the summit’s eight sessions would finish with the Abu Dhabi Draft Declaration, which would be “a very precise agenda of action for the future”.

“We will use the summit to see how parliaments can be more fit for purpose,” Dr Chowdhury said.

The declaration will call for parliaments to work together to find solutions to challenges.

“Parliaments have come late to the game if you look at other international processes, but we are key to that,” he said.

“Because whatever our governments agree on has to be implemented so parliamentarians have a major role to play.”

Organised by the union and the FNC, the summit will be the 11th meeting of women speakers of parliament, but the UAE decided to turn it into a global summit of parliamentary leaders under the theme United in Shaping the Future.

Speakers will include Marillyn Hewson, president of Lockheed Martin, who was last year named the 20th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Also expected to address the forum is former Nasa administrator Charles Bolden, and Global Youth Organisation president Jacobo Pombo Garcia.

“It is great opportunity to network and combine our minds. I think it is a great way to show how the UAE is a pioneer in many fields,” Dr Chowdhury said.

Martin Chungong, secretary general of IPU, said: “There are certain issues that women articulate better than men, so to have them speak openly and freely will enrich the platform.

“The same thing for the youth. We want them to speak about their own issues.”

There also will be an exhibition for Emirati inventors coinciding with the summit, which takes place on December 12 and 13 at the Emirates Palace hotel.