On account of the role of Parliaments in the affairs of State, it was only natural that the world organization of Parliaments should ensure that they were closely involved in the preparatory process for the Conference and in its decisions which incur the responsibility of the State. Against that background, the IPU organized a Parliamentarians' Day during the FWCW on 7 September 1995 at the invitation of the Chinese National People's Congress. Five hundred MPs from 102 countries took part in the Day which concluded with the adoption by consensus of the Beijing Parliamentary Declaration. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the principle of equality between men and women having been established in nearly all our Constitutions and fundamental laws, few indeed are the countries where the right of women to vote and be elected has not yet been recognized and exercised.
Women make up half or more of the populations of our countries.
In addition to pursuing their family role and traditional household activities, they have in under a century become an active labour force whose nationwide economic impact is often equal to and sometimes exceeds that of men. Women's intellectual potential, often decisive electoral weight and capacity to act for change are still inadequately understood and turned to account. Women in fact remain sidelined at all levels of decision-making, especially in politics, and their economic contribution continues to be shaded over in national statistics and assessments. Our societies are still chiefly organized and run as their male element may determine, with the result that they continue either largely to forgo or to disclaim what female talent and endeavour may so vitally contribute to their development. In April 1992, the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Council held that the concept of democracy would only come into its own when major policy objectives and national legislation were decided upon jointly by men and women with equal regard for the specific interests and aptitudes of each half of the population.