On 11 October 2021, responding to the invitation of the Arab Parliament session of the diploma course of the Arab Women Parliamentary forum, PAM participated in a webinar of the Applied Diploma to Empower Arab Women MPs. This diploma is comprised of a series of lectures by international experts and stakeholders.

Talking to women MPs from the Arab Parliament, President Gennaro Migliore shared the latest steps by PAM towards gender equality including through a recent amendment to the PAM statutes aiming at promoting a better gender balance within PAM. He noted that PAM delegations have over the years progressively shown more gender balance reaching 45% of women MPs participating this year. Hon. Migliore also announced the establishment of the PAM Women Parliamentary Forum which will officially be inaugurated in Portugal next January 2022. 

During the debate, PAM President Hon. Migliore stressed the need for strict laws to prevent any further escalations of gender-based violence, which includes acts such as sexual assaults, arranged marriages, female genital mutilation and forced sterilizations. Hon. Migliore recalled the importance of the Istanbul Convention to fight violence against women He praised the initiatives taken by several governments of the region to develop hotlines and smartphone applications for victims during the pandemic.  “However severe the COVID-19 crisis has proved to be, it could not stop PAM from honoring its pledge to advocate for a fairer society, where women and men enjoy the same rights.”. He also explained that the trend of internet violence could be effectively stopped only if the public and private sectors joined their efforts in the fight against gender discrimination. 

The participation of PAM at this event ties together a series of PAM activities aimed at promoting gender equality and combatting gender-based violence. Both the PAM and the Arab Parliament have common members, and have signed a cooperation agreement for enhanced collaboration in 2018.