Venice Commission concerned over Georgia's removal of gender quotas
Gender quotas in Georgia
The advisory body of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission, has expressed concern over the Georgian authorities’ decision to abolish gender quotas. The Commission noted that this move could impact the stability of electoral legislation.
On April 4, the Georgian parliament abolished gender quotas. The party “Girchi” initiated the removal of these quotas during the formation of electoral lists.
According to the legislative initiative by Aleksandre Rakviashvili, Iago Khvichia, Herman Sabo, and Vakhtang Megrelishvili, the change was made to the electoral code. As per the proposal, political parties will no longer be required to fill their electoral lists based on gender requirements.
On April 18, Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the abolition of gender quotas, but the parliament overrode this veto on May 15.
Venice Commission’s conclusion
- The Venice Commission is highly concerned that the amendments were adopted hastily, without prior public consultation, and without considering the concerns raised by the president of Georgia, the Public Defender, opposition representatives, civil society, and international organizations.
- Additionally, the amendment concerning political party candidate lists affects election outcomes, and its adoption less than a year before the elections scheduled for October 2024 raises serious concerns about the stability of electoral legislation. The Venice Commission reiterates, as it has in several previous conclusions, that the practice of frequent changes to electoral legislation in Georgia threatens the integrity of the electoral process and undermines the state’s efforts to strengthen democracy.
- Essentially, the Venice Commission notes that international standards, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), recognize the state’s positive obligations to ensure gender equality, as the Constitutional Court of Georgia did in its 2020 decision.
- While each country must decide how to improve gender equality in democratic institutions, including parliament, it has been proven that gender quotas can significantly impact women’s representation in parliament and do not contradict the principle of equal suffrage when enshrined in the constitution.
- Statistics show that women’s representation in Georgian politics indeed increased after the introduction of mandatory gender quotas, but more progress is needed: women’s representation in parliament rose to 19.1 percent after the 2020 elections and to 24 percent in local councils after the 2021 elections. However, this is still far from the recommended European standard of 40 percent representation of either gender in any decision-making body, political or public life.
- The 2020 changes that established gender quotas for candidates in parliamentary and local electoral lists, as well as financial incentives for political parties, aligned with the Venice Commission’s previous recommendations but have now been abolished without replacing them with other measures to facilitate the election of women candidates.
- “The Venice Commission recommends that the Georgian government adopt temporary special measures to stimulate the growth of women’s representation in parliament and local councils,” the conclusion states.
Gender quotas in Georgia
