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Nana Oye Lithur, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, has called for a concerted effort from all concerned bodies to fight and protect women�s right of participation and representation in decision-making. She said women�s participation and representation in decision-making was a right recognized under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Protocol on African Charter on Human and People�s Rights (PACHPR) of which Ghana is a signatory. �It is therefore very imperative that all hands are put on deck to ensure that we increase women participation and representation in decision-making.� Nana Oye Lithur was speaking on Tuesday at a Validation Workshop to finalize the Draft Proposal on the Affirmative Action Bill in Koforidua. She said there was the need to put in place some measures that would help support women to occupy decision-making positions in the country. Nana Oye Lithur said even though Ghana seemed to be better than other countries in decision-making positions, �in real terms, it is nothing compared to positions occupied by our male counterparts,� adding that, though the number of women increased in the last Parliamentary election, the figure was still very low. The Minister used the occasion to call for maximum women participation in the upcoming District Assembly Elections to improve the rate recorded in the 2010 elections. The workshop was to solicit the input of stakeholders into the proposals submitted to promote national ownership of the Affirmative Action Bill and to improve the low representation of women and vulnerable groups in decision-making and leadership positions. The Affirmative Action Bill has been developed to help improve women�s participation and representation in decision-making. Last year, two gender experts were hired to collate and review relevant documents to enable them draft a proposal on the Affirmative Action and to facilitate the validation of the workshop with relevant stakeholders on the document that has been produced.