For several years, gender equality has been a worldwide concern, particularly by being included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, intending to achieve gender equality by 2030. However, it is evident that this commitment is violated in the international community and even within the United Nations itself.
For instance, almost 75 years after establishing the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it has had only four women judges, representing 3.7% of the total of 108 judges that have had a seat at the Court. Also, women constitute only a third of ICC judges at present. Besides, judges of the Tribunal on the Law of the Sea compose five women out of 21 judges. Surprisingly, The International Law Commission has only had a total of seven women members in its history out of a total of 229 members (Verhelst, 2021). Therefore, it is crucially important to address this issue since, within the UN, which is trying to protect human rights, gender equality is apparently violated. In this sense, this article explores the inadequate contribution of women in the UN in light of the Human Rights Council’s report on the level of women’s representation in UN human rights organs and mechanisms.
The Concept of Gender Equality
there has been a tendency in the traditional cultures to exclude women from active participation in development processes and treat them as passive recipients of development assistance (Bradshaw et al., 2013). Therefore, to tackle these issues, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, gender equality was adopted by the United Nations as the 5th goal.
Gender equality means that all people, including men and women, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities, and protections. It does not mean that people are the same or should be treated precisely alike (LeMoyne,2011). There is a difference between gender equality, gender neutrality, and gender equity. The laters are practices and ways of thinking that help achieve the first one, which is the primary goal.
It is provided that achieving gender equality is a human rights issue and is crucial to progress across all the goals and targets (UN,2021). While being a goal in its own right, gender equality cuts across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is reflected in 45 targets and 54 indicators for the SDGs. Furthermore, gender equality can be a catalytic policy intervention that triggers positive multiplier effects across the spectrum of development (Ibid).
Report of The HRC On the Level of Women Representation in UN Human Rights Organs and Mechanisms
Under Article 7 of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, one of the fundamental rights for women is to take part in public and political life, including being a member of international organizations. However, even the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies – the bodies intended to monitor the implementation of international human rights by States – do not comply with this requirement.
In this regard, for the first time, the UN Human Rights Council, in response to Human Rights Council Resolution 41/6, analyzed the current contribution of women in UN Bodies. The UN Human Rights Council addressed the current levels of representation of women in UN Bodies and Mechanisms, including the Treaty Bodies, in response to Human Rights Council Resolution 41/6. This report, which the Council considered in June 2021, explores the impact of women’s underrepresentation and the challenges that hinder gender parity (Kran,2021).
It is concluded that four Treaty Bodies — the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (CMW), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Committee against Torture (CAT), and the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) — have the lowest number of women representatives at 14%, 28%, 30%, and 30% respectively. Also, the total representation of women across all ten Treaty Bodies is at 48.83%, which does not indicate gender equality (HRC, 2021).
It is argued that one of the leading causes of this underrepresentation refers to the fact that “States have not nominated a sufficient number of women experts as candidates for the committees.” In this sense, in most countries, nomination processes are rarely formal or transparent, which likely results in not being aware of vacancies by qualified women candidates(Kran,2021). Therefore, this issue raises crucial concerns on the adverse effects of such underrepresentation on the effectiveness and credibility of the Treaty Bodies. In other words, Treaty Bodies are expected to uphold the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination (Ibid).
Accordingly, HRC provided the following recommendations to states; (Kran,2021)
- “Proactively identify women candidates for Treaty Body membership, and where appropriate, give women preference over male candidates.
- Work with civil society organizations such as women’s associations to collect profiles of qualified women and widely publicize vacancies, including to these groups. Here, I would like to applaud civil society organizations such as GQUAL for their compelling advocacy for gender parity in UN mechanisms, including Treaty Bodies.
- Incorporate gender as an explicit feature in nomination processes; establish benchmarks for nominating women for each Treaty Body.
- Lobby in support of women candidates.
- Promote research to help overcome the barriers to achieving gender parity on Treaty Bodies.
- Monitor and ensure compliance with relevant gender parity measures.
- Report to the UN Human Rights Council on the progress or difficulties experienced in implementing report recommendations.”
Concluding Remarks and Recommendations
As laid out in Articles 7 and 8 of the CEDAW Convention, women’s right to an equal involvement in all sectors of society is a fundamental human right. Nevertheless, the under-representation of women exists in the context of the UN Treaty bodies, which would weaken the efficacy of these organs. As a result, it is strongly recommended that states and government officials consider the above recommendations provided by HRC to comply with this fundamental human rights norm.
Bibliography
Bradshaw, S., J. Castellino and B. Diop. 2013. “Women’s role in economic development: overcoming the constraints.” Background paper for the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
HRC, 2021, “Current levels of representation of women in human rights organs and mechanisms: ensuring gender balance; Report of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee”.
Kran,2021, “Symposium on Gender Representation: Women’s Representation on the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies – Action Needed to Achieve Parity”, accessed 4 October 2021 < http://opiniojuris.org/2021/10/05/symposium-on-gender-representation-womens-representation-on-the-un-human-rights-treaty-bodies-action-needed-to-achieve-parity/ >.
LeMoyne, 2011. “Promoting gender equality: An equity-based approach to programming.” Operational Guidance Overview in Brief .
UNDP, 2018, “Gender Equality As An Accelerator For Achieving The Sustainable Development Goals”, accessed 3 October 2021 < https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals#gender-equality >.
Verhelst, 2021, “Women In International Law: The Role Of Secretariats Of International Organizations In The Development Of International Law”, accessed 3 October 2021 < https://www.law.kuleuven.be/home/studiedagen-en-lezingen/anne-verhelst-moderator-women-in-international-law-the-role-of-secretariats-of-international-organizations-in-the-development-of-international-law >.
By The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
