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Female quotas YES are required

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

The recent resolution officially ruled by the federal judge with electoral competence in Santa Fe, Reinaldo Rubén Rodríguez, who is challenging the list of 15 national deputy candidates, presented by the Ciudad Futura political space, is in debate. The magistrate ordered that Law 24,012 guaranteed equality of opportunity and treatment for women, which also has to be guaranteed for men. This statement generates an immediate question: What is the lack of access opportunities that men have in political spaces, in relation to women?

Unfortunately, in the wake of the interpretation of our Constitution, and in particular Art. 37, the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) continue to be ignored. English), which enjoys a constitutional hierarchy and must be mandatory as a current and complementary norm of our Charter.

Article 4 (1) of the CEDAW states: “The adoption by States Parties of temporary special measures to accelerate de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination in the manner defined in the Convention. This Convention shall not, however, entail, as a consequence, the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; These measures shall cease when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved”.

Female quota laws are nothing more than these “special temporary measures” established in this body of legislation, which must cease when the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achieved. From there comes the question: Have we already achieved such equality between men and women?

Recently, after the ruling in Santa Fe, some newspaper articles have branded Law No. 24,012 as “discriminatory for men.” But, although women are more than half the population, how is it possible that in no space for decision-making in our country we have reached 50% representation?

Gender inequality is manifest in all spaces, and the political is clearly included. Even more so when speeches that de-legitimize quota laws are tirelessly reproduced. Mandatory female representation by quota is the first step to ensure equal opportunities. Political parties must find female representatives, with sufficient qualifications and qualifications to fill these representative positions, so that they truly speak for women who are part of such spaces.

It is not the quota laws that compel the parties to make the candidates the “wives of” or “figures of the spectacle or sport without vocation for politics and fictional candidates or testimonials who “smiles smiling”, as some notes Journalism. It is the machista mechanisms themselves that do not recognize women with sufficient autonomy and merit, as apt to occupy such positions of fundamental democratic importance.
It remains difficult to understand the debate around quota laws, when no alternative proposals have been heard or read that guarantee real spaces for women, who have historically been relegated to the private, far from politics. Let us not forget that it was only 69 years ago that women have acceded to the right to vote, and that Law 24,012 was enacted only in 1991.

Before the validity of the Act on Women, the women representatives of their parties in Congress did not exceed 6% of the total number of seats. After its promulgation, in 2005, the female participation reached 36% in the Chamber of Deputies and 42% in the Senate. At present, women occupy 41.7% in the Senate and 38.5% in Deputies.

The quota laws are necessary, and society and the Argentine political community remain indebted to democracy, because parity is not yet real. Let us not go back, and move forward to make room for equal opportunities and treatment between women and men.

Antes de la vigencia de la Ley de Cupo Femenino, las mujeres representantes de sus partidos en el Congreso no superaban el 6% del total de las bancas. Luego de su promulgación, en el año 2005, la participación femenina alcanzó el 36% en la Cámara de Diputados y el 42% en el Senado. En la actualidad, las mujeres ocupan el 41,7% en la Cámara de Senadores y el 38,5% en Diputados.

The quota laws are necessary, and society and the Argentine political community remain indebted to democracy, because parity is not yet real. Let us not go back, and move forward to make room for equal opportunities and treatment between women and men.

Sources

– Journalists and women politicians, a boom in list building. Editorial. Diario Clarin. Buenos Aires, 25/06/2017.

– Female quotas are not necessary. Editorial. Diario La Nacion. Buenos Aires, 09/07/2017.

– Gabriel Sued. Women unite in Congress for an increase in the female quota. Diario La Nación, Buenos Aires, 16/08/2016.

– Marcela Ríos Tobar. Woman and politics. The impact of gender quotas in Latin America. Catalonia. Santiago, Chile, 2008.

More information

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

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Workshop on Gender Violence with Las Omas

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

 

In the most vulnerable areas of our country, women are traced by the most serious violence. The rights we have conquered and the laws that we must protect often take time to come in their application, and communities are not always properly informed about how to make effective the guarantees offered by the State.

In the area of ​​collaboration and accompaniment that we built together with Las Omas, we also understand that it is important to strengthen the ties and ties between the women who make it up, since the networks of containment between women are the first that help to overcome those who face to the worst situations of violence.

The activities and mechanisms generated through Las Omas, with the women who make it up, are an essential tool for the follow-up actions that can be started and can be reinforced over time. That is why we have proposed to carry out workshops on gender violence, its types and the mechanisms of protection provided by the State. But this would be little if it is not complemented with tools that strengthen the bonds between those who are part of the community.

The first Gender Violence Workshop we conducted focused on promoting the development of ties and links that could serve to reinforce support mechanisms among women, so that confronting situations of violence can be collective, with the support of those who have overcome the obstacles, from those who can understand each other, and that in this way, women continue to take care of us in the fight against gender violence.

Contact

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org

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Seven months and counting of acephaly for the Public Defender’s Office

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”

The Office of the Public Defender, the agency responsible for receiving complaints from active hearings in cases of rights violations, has previously received international awards. Among them, is the one granted by the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the OAS. On this occasion, he was awarded the “Inter-American Award for Innovation for Effective Public Management”. This award

“…is an initiative of the Department for Effective Public Management of the OAS, whose main objective is to recognize, encourage, systematize and promote the innovations in public management that are being carried out in the region with the purpose of contributing to institutions Increasingly transparent, effective and have mechanisms for citizen participation.”

The institution was one of the main actors in public policy mapping to protect women against symbolic and media violence, in addition to protecting the general public. Through complaints, or acting on their own initiative, they issued opinions against content that exercised media violence and carried out activities, such as meetings and training, or instances of mediation, with the producers of said contents in order to raise awareness and give guidelines for producing content Not sexist.

However, this efficient and participative management of the organization has been interrupted since November last year when the Bicameral Commission, which should appoint the maximum authority of the Ombudsman’s Office, decided not to appoint anyone at the end of the mandate of Ms. Cyntia Ottaviano . As we mentioned in previous notes, the agency is still in an irregular situation and unable to carry out activities that go beyond mere formal and administrative communications. This limits that measures are taken in cases of media violence for reasons of gender or any other, and it does not allow the Ombudsman to make pronouncements on the quality of the contents denounced.

There is still no certainty about what will happen to the Ombudsman. In this context, it is important to remember that CEDAW, in its concluding observations to Argentina, recommended:

“To amend Act No. 26.522 (2009) on audiovisual media services, in order to provide the Public Defender with the power to sanction violations of provisions to regulate gender stereotypes and sexism in the media.”

In this sense, the institutional situation is detrimental to what is recommended according to international standards.

More information

– The OAS will distinguish the Ombudsman’s task for the promotion of gender equity | Defensoría del Público

– Worrying situation of the Public Defender’s Office | FUNDEPS

Contact

Carolina Tamagnini – carotamagnini@fundeps.org