Members of National Assemblyon Monday unanimously approved a bill entitled Women's Amendment Bill' 2012 that seeks to include the Ministry responsible for Women's Affairs in the National Women’s Council.

The vice president and minister of Women’s Affairs, Her Excellency Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, who tabled the document before the House, said the move is necessitated by the fact that the Ministry is responsible for policy formulation and its presence in the Council is indispensable.

According to her, the amendment of Section 58 highlighted the Principal Act and is amended in Section 58 (1) by (a) deleting the word “AND” immediately after the full stop in paragraph (B) replacing the full stop in paragraph (c) with semi-colon and adding the word “and” after the semi-colon.

VP Njie-Saidy added that the Bill has empowered the rights of pregnant or nursing women and women in detention by providing them with an environment which is suitable to their condition and the right to be treated with dignity. The National Women’s Council, she went on, is a corporate body with perpetual succession and a common seal, capable of suing and being sued in its corporate name.

“It consists of representatives from each electoral constituency, the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education, Agriculture, Health and Social Welfare, a representative from the private sector and one representative from each of the two main religious groups and one representative from Non-Governmental Organisations, among others,” she concluded.