The 30% Gender Quota Law in Sierra Leone: A Game Changer for Women’s Access to Parliament?

IF 0.1 Q4 LAW
Victoria Melkisedeck Lihiru
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The June 2023 elections in Sierra Leone occurred against the backdrop of amendments to the Public Elections Act (pea), the enactment of the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (gewe), and a switch from the First Past the Post (fptp) electoral system to the Proportional Representation (pr) electoral system. For the first time in Sierra Leone’s history, law reforms, among other things, introduced a 30% gender quota rule for parliamentary and councillorship seats. After the 2023 elections, women won 41 out of the 135 elected parliamentary seats, increasing the percentage of women parliamentarians from 12.32% in the 2018 elections to 30.37%. Despite the increase, there have been concerns about the overall effectiveness of the gender quota rule in facilitating women’s access to parliamentary seats. The gender quota rule is set below 50%, is not accompanied by the candidates’ ranking order, does not apply in the election of 14 paramount chiefs, and operates within poor data desegregation of the candidates. This article highlights the required reforms to address the identified legal challenges to facilitate women’s equal access to representation in Sierra Leone’s Parliament.

塞拉利昂 30% 的性别配额法:改变妇女进入议会的游戏规则?
2023 年 6 月的塞拉利昂选举是在《公共选举法》(pea)修正案、《性别平等和妇女赋权法》(gewe)颁布以及从 "得票最多者当选"(fptp)选举制度转向 "比例代表制"(pr)选举制度的背景下举行的。除其他外,法律改革在塞拉利昂历史上首次引入了议会和议员席位中 30% 的性别配额规则。2023 年选举后,在 135 个当选的议会席位中,妇女赢得了 41 个席位,使女议员的比例从 2018 年选举时的 12.32%增至 30.37%。尽管比例有所提高,但性别配额规则在促进妇女获得议会席位方面的整体效果仍令人担忧。性别配额规则的设定低于 50%,不附带候选人的排名顺序,不适用于 14 位最高酋长的选举,并且在候选人数据隔离不佳的情况下运作。本文强调了为解决已确定的法律挑战而需要进行的改革,以促进妇女在塞拉利昂议会中享有平等的代表权。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
18
期刊介绍: The African Journal of Legal Studies (AJLS) is a peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary academic journal focusing on human rights and rule of law issues in Africa as analyzed by lawyers, economists, political scientists and others drawn from throughout the continent and the world. The journal, which was established by the Africa Law Institute and is now co-published in collaboration with Brill | Nijhoff, aims to serve as the leading forum for the thoughtful and scholarly engagement of a broad range of complex issues at the intersection of law, public policy and social change in Africa. AJLS places emphasis on presenting a diversity of perspectives on fundamental, long-term, systemic problems of human rights and governance, as well as emerging issues, and possible solutions to them. Towards this end, AJLS encourages critical reflections that are based on empirical observations and experience as well as theoretical and multi-disciplinary approaches.
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