Equal Opportunities for Older Women

Parliament

Constitutional law

Women

The National Assemby and Senate "realize that the laws relating to equal rights have not been implemented in practice - although numerous legal texts, for example, the preamble to the Constitution of 1946 or the Amsterdam agreements, explicitly require this - (...) and that sexual discrimination is still widespread (...). Both agree that (...), government bodies, such as the Observatory for Parity, are inadequte as regards informing parliament objectively and fully, and both wish that parliament be equipped with permanent independent bodies constituting a kind of 'parliamentary watchdog'."

Both parilamentary organs (National Assembly and Senate) should each nominate a parliamentary delegation for women's rights and equal opportunities; the primary task of these delegations should be to inform both organs about the consequences of government policy with regard to the rights of women and equal opportunities. Furthermore the delegations should examine the application of the existing laws in this field. The text of the law also establishes the right of the delegations to information by obliging the government to inform the delegations and to provide them with all the documents necessary for fulfilling their task.

Floch, Jacques : "Rapport (...) sur la proposition de loi (...) tendant à la création de délégations parlementaires aux droits des femmes et à l'égalité des chances entre les hommes et les femmes." ("Report (...) on the draft law (...) on the establishment of parliamentary delegations for women's rights and equal opportunities for the sexes"), Assemblée nationale, n 1696, 18.06.1999.

Secrétariat aux Droits de la Femme
8 avenue de Ségur
F 75005 Paris (Secretariat for Women's Rights)