A mock parliamentary debate to celebrate International Women's Day in Solomon Islands has resulted in a decision to form a working group to look further into creating reserved seats for women.
Ruth Maetala, who took part in the debate, says the new committee will work with the legislative taskforce already investigating how to apply temporary special measures in the Solomon Islands context by 2014.
She says as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, or CEDAW, the Solomon Islands government can impose special measures to advance the status of women.
Ms Maetala says that's something for which the public is showing clear support.
"It has been published by the people's survey that more than 80 percent of the people who were interviewed supported women to be parliamentarians and the reserved seats for women. Because it's easy to argue that CEDAW is foreign, it's a foreign policy and why have reserved seats for women."
Ruth Maetala says the aim is for 10 reserved seats to be in place before the 2014 election.
