The Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR: Joint opinion about Women’s representation

Legislation

The Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR has published its Preliminary Joint Opinion on the Draft Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia.

The Opinion about Women’s representation:

117. The draft code increases the previously used gender quota. While the former system provided for a 20 per cent quota within brackets, but starting from bracket 2-6, the new one introduces a 25 per cent quota, starting from bracket 1-4. However, it might have limited impact. Indeed, it is only imposed on the first part of the national electoral lists for the National Assembly, which are closed lists, starting from the top of the list (Article 83.4). For the district lists, the requirement is that not more than 75 per cent of the total number of candidates can be of the same gender (Article 83.10), but there is no requirement concerning the placement on the list since the lists are open. As such, it is likely that every party passing the threshold will have at least one woman elected from the national list, but there is no such guarantee concerning district lists. In a positive step, Article 100.3 assures that, when filling vacancies in the first part of the national list, the underrepresented gender should get the seat if the gender in that party would otherwise be less than 20 per cent.

118. Article 130.2 has the same requirement for gender balance for the councils of elders of Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor as there is for the National Assembly. In addition, Article 141.5 guarantees that every party will not have all its seats filled by candidates of the same gender. Since the rule is applied to all the seats in the council, the balance may be better than in the parliament. It is again positive that Article 141.7 assures that when filling vacancies, the underrepresented gender should get the seat if the share of the gender of that party would otherwise be less than 20 per cent.

119. For candidates to council of elders, other than Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor there are no gender requirements.

120. The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR have stated, on several occasions, that “the small number of women in politics remains a critical issue which undermines the full functioning of democratic processes”. In line with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Report on the Method of Nomination of Candidates within Political Parties, electoral quotas are regarded as temporary special measures that can act as an “appropriate and legitimate measure to increase women’s parliamentary representation. It is for each country to decide how to improve gender equality. However, the Venice Commission considers that, if legislative quotas are imposed, they “should provide for at least 30 per cent of women on party lists, while 40 or 50 is preferable”, in order to be effective.

121. It is therefore recommended that the draft code provide a more effective quota for women’s representation on candidate lists, such as placing women among every two or three candidates. The draft code should also ensure that the chosen quota is effective not only for the registration of the candidate list, but also when distributing mandates.

The full text of the opinion is available here.

GTG Recommendations on women’s political participation here

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