Ms Mariia Mezentseva, Chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly Thank you very much indeed for that. And I have another question for you. Historical fact, dear colleagues. Women's suffrage was only introduced in Liechtenstein in 1984 and this was an important step in achieving full and effective gender equality, followed by many other measures. Do you see, Ms Kubik-Risch, a need, an extra need for action in Liechtenstein today? And if so, which are these areas? Thank you.

Ms Bernadette Kubik-Risch, Equal opportunities expert, Liechtenstein Thank you very much. Well, obviously, even though a great deal has been done over the last 40 years, clearly Liechtenstein still has work to do. We need to have balanced representation of men and women in decision-making roles. We also need to decriminalise termination of pregnancy in Liechtenstein. We also need to have better division of paid and unpaid labour in Liechtenstein. We are also waiting for paid parental leave and have been waiting an awful long time for that as well. So, fair distribution of labour. Now, we have a legal basis for these things, but I think much remains to be done in terms of awareness raising for that to catch up. And I think that that has a lot to do with trying to break away from stereotypical roles. So obviously, we want to involve politics as well as the business world in order to push forward even further with equality.

Ms Mariia Mezentseva, Chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly I would like to remind dear colleagues, the latest countries to be ratifying the Istanbul Convention were Ukraine, then the United Kingdom, and we expect more to follow because indeed, women's rights are human rights, and it involved deeply in the research that it contributes the developments of our economies and some of our member States currently are going through stagnation, but also with the new-born babies. The law that can emphasise the right of parental leave not only for women, but also for men in Ukrainian parliament. It was practically implemented by our members, for instance. Thank you very much. And we move on to our next distinguished speaker, Mr Wilfried Marxer. Dear Mr Marxer, you are regarded as THE human rights expert in Liechtenstein, having worked extensively on key issues such as minority rights, religious tolerance and the fight against extremism, which is also at the heart of our work in the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination. And this is just a few areas, there are many others where you were involved. You have also investigated women's political participation, political and social equality between women and men, and the challenges that remain to be addressed. In this context, can you tell us more about transformative power of the gender equality and women's empowerment which you gathered in your experience?

Mr Wilfried Marxer, President of the Association for Human Rights, Liechtenstein Well, no, that is very difficult to do. Talking about the transformative force, I mean, we have already heard that you cannot get very far without women and Liechtenstein came to women's equality very late in the day. So, we have got an awful lot of catching up to do. Now, over the last 40 years, since women have had the right to vote, we have, I believe, been pioneering and an awful lot has changed in society. Ms Kubik-Risch talked about the various milestones, something that would have been scarcely conceivable 40 years ago. And that is why we are so very grateful that pressure came from outside. The international community never gave up pushing a country to improve. We have got a monitoring process, for example. I mean, it is not that everything was orchestrated from the outside, rather it came from within. A growing awareness amongst people in Liechtenstein in recent decades. So, there has been a shift in mentalities which has given rise therefore to those milestones and the force of women. Now, of course, it would be a great thing if we could raise women's voices even more and try and increase women's representation because we've got a great deal to do. We have got 60% of government members who are women. That is a terrific achievement. Of course, we have got the Government elected by parliament, but we have got only 20% in parliament. And if you look at local authorities, you can see that only twelve out of eleven posts are occupied by women. And so, there is a great deal of catching up to do there. Now, women, of course, often heavily involved in their families and do not have equal pay. A great deal to be done when it comes to equality in the workplace. So again, we have got still a way to go. And men, of course, I think need to become more involved in the whole process and make sure that they do their bit when it comes to work in the care sector, for example.

Ms Mariia Mezentseva, Chairperson of the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly Dear Mr Marxer, you said that is impossible to answer such complicated question. I will put another, even more complicated question now and that might need PhD research, but what would be the measures that should be taken, if we dream about it, to achieve fully the women's empowerment?

II SÉRIE-D — NÚMERO 21 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20