question on violence against women, she said that the issue had not yet been the subject of national studies and there were no provisions to create women's According to the latest data collected by the shelters by the State. 30 per cent of the cases brought to their Conunission's information centres, attention included the dimension of violence against women, particularly in In order to raise awareness, the Commission had elaborated and the family. distributed two brochures and three leaflets on the subject. 286. Regarding article 6, she said that Portugal had not yet become a party to the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (General Assembly resolution 317 (IV)), but the subject had been studied with the intention of ratifying that Convention. A brochure on the subject had been published by the Commissionin order to raise the awareness of women. In reply to a follow-up question, she admitted that there were difficulties in collecting information The importance of prevention on prostitution and indirectly intervening. through information and assistance was emphasized. 207. Responding to questions on article 7, the representative confirmed that, despite some political declarations , namely by the Prime Minister, on the need to increase women's political participation, there were no quotas for women. She referred to the quotation from the report (CEDAWX1181Add.3. pare. 18) that **politics is a world of power and, as such, remains a masculine The existing statistics showedthat out of the 61 members of the preserve". -__Government, 4 were women(the Ministers of Budget, Culture, Public Administration and Regional Development); there was no womanin the Council of Stater only one female judge out of 13 judges in the Constitutional Courtt and female parliamentarians constituted 10 per cent of the membershipof In order to improve the situation, the Commissionhad proposed Parliament. some measures focused on three main objectives: extension of knowledge on the effective participation of womenat all levels of political life; identification and eradication of the obstaclest and promotion of women's participation in public administration, political parties and trade unions, in particular in posts subject to political nominations at the national and The measureshad also included the possibility of international levels. introducing into educational programmesthe topic of political participation as a requirement for democracy, the creation of a roster of qualified women and:..an information campaign to raise consciousness. 288. Responding to a question on the law regulating the rights of women's organizations, she said that there were only general rules concerning all A new law on the rights of women's non-governmental organizations. organizations, which had been proposed to Parliament on 8 March 1989 by women of all parties, had a purely political meaning as the draft did not include any financial provisions. However, since 1988, the budget of the Commission had been increased by someadditional resources that were meant to support women's organizations in consultative status with the Commission. 289. In response to a follow-up question with regard to the participation of womenin decision-making, the role of women's networks was emphasized. She observed that it was often easier to improve the situation at the national level than at the local level. -58-