Minister of Women and Child Affairs and Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus, Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, addressed the 9th Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) Conference, held in conjunction with the 68th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The conference featured several workshops focused on challenges faced by women in politics. Minister Paulraj participated as a panelist in the session titled “Debate Not Hate: Not Accepting Abuse as an Outcome of Free Speech,” which examined how to balance free expression with the responsibility to prevent harassment and hate speech, particularly against women in political spaces.
In her address, Minister Paulraj emphasized the need to create a safe, respectful, and dignified environment for women’s political participation. She proposed key measures including:
Developing a Model Code of Conduct to address gender-based violence, sexism, and online abuse.
Sharing best practices for institutional safeguards and independent complaint mechanisms.
Implementing mandatory training on gender sensitization and anti-harassment for parliamentarians and staff.
The session also featured Hon. Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, Member of Parliament of Guernsey, and Hon. Corine N. George-Massicote, Speaker of the House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands. Women parliamentarians, delegates, and officials from across the Commonwealth attended the event, which underscored the collective call to ensure that debates and political discourse remain free from hate and discrimination.
