Justice Behind a Woman’s Face
What is the situation with female judges in our country and in the rest of the world? Can equality be only based on numbers? What is the real situation? What positions do women occupy within the Judiciary and politics in general?
In order to introduce issues from a gender perspective, to accomplish equal labor rights, to defend those who suffer violence in relation with their condition (including women, men, transgender folks, homosexual people), to reduce the number of deaths connected to this and to obtain fair justice; to conquer all of that, it is indispensable that judicial and political organisms be egalitarian, which means they have to include diversity, tolerate no discrimination, and be an example to the causes they are supposed to defend.
Nowadays, we have a female Supreme Justice Court Vice-President, Elena Highton de Nolasco, who was the first woman to be appointed in that position during a democratic government. Margarita Argúas was the first woman who was part of a supreme court in the Americas. Carmen María Argibay was another minister appointed in 2004 next to Highton de Nolasco.
Argibay was a women’s right defender well-known for carrying out projects against women trafficking. She declared herself favorable to contraceptive methods to prevent abortions and unwanted pregnancy, on the grounds of sexual education policy at schools. She was awarded the Gruber Prize for Justice in 2007 for her labor promoting gender equality and the eradication of judicial corruption.
The three judges mentioned above are the only women in the list of representatives in the most important Justice institution in Argentine history, the Supreme Court.
Women and Justice
On the other hand, within the Judiciary in Buenos Aires downtown, 49% of judges are women. To celebrate this number and share with everyone their work, the Council of Magistrates of the City of Buenos Aires is organizing a series of activities at different Buenos Aires Judiciary headquarters.
The activities include a photography exhibition named “Nuestras Juezas,” the projection of a short movie on sexist violence, “Hacelo Corto,” and a comics exhibition “APOC, género y mujer”. The event is taking place at the headquarters located on Av. Julio Argentino Roca 516/530, Hipólito Yrigoyen 932 and Roque Sáenz Peña 636.
From a worldwide perspective, the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) is in charge of linking every female judges’ association from 82 countries, as well as independent female judges. The final count reaches about 5000 members.
IAWJ works alongside its member to:
· Create innovative educational programs promoting human rights, preventing gender discrimination within judicial job positions and promoting entry for women into tribunals.
· Develop a worldwide net for women judges and create opportunities for judicial exchange through international conferences, training courses and the IAWJ website.
· Foster judicial leadership and support judicial independence.
· Collaborate with other organizations in matters of equality related to the access to Justice.
Currently, IAWJ is working on strengthening the capacity of Dominican Republic judges to face sexist violence, ending human trafficking in Haiti, improving the access to Justice in Malawi and creating support and dialogue nets for marginal women in Egypt, Jordania, Libya and Tunisia.
In our country, the Argentine Association of Women Judges (in Spanish “Asociación Argentina de Mujeres Juezas,” AMJA) was created in 1993 and obtained its juridical persona in 1997. Its first President was Dr Carmen Argibay, who in 1989 had attended the 10-years-anniversary reunion of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) which invited 50 female judges from different cities around the globe and that’s where the idea of creating an international association was born.
On Friday March 10th, Susana Medina de Rizzo was re elected as AMJA President; furthermore, she was also elected President of IAWJ during the 2014–2016 period.
Additionally, the Spanish Association of Women Judges (in Spanish, “Asociación Mujeres Juezas de España,” AMJE) protested last Monday for more women presence in international courts, especially in the European Court of Human Rights, where no woman has ever been appointed representative of Spain. This is an attempt to claim for true participation of women in judicial positions, especially in a court of “Human Rights.”
Spanish female judges have also denounced the discrimination imposed through the age limit (at 61), since they were banned from access to the Judiciary by Law until 1996 and, consequently, it will take longer for them to catch up with the levels of merits accomplished by their male counterparts.
When numbers are not enough
In its last March 8th edition, La Voz Journal from Córdoba, Argentina, published an article stating that 74% of the judicial officials are women, who mainly work as secretaries. On the other hand, among Judges they stand for a minority, because 62% are men and only 38% are women, according to the report of the Centre of Judicial Studies and Projects of Córdoba’s Judiciary.
This is not only happening in our country nor in judicial environment; in a report made by Virgina García Beaudoux, Political Communication and Public Opinion Professor at UBA, she explained why the lack of equality isn’t a matter of numbers but of jobs: those that are not given to women.
García Beaudoux had the oppotunity to interview women connected to politics around the globe in a research she did back in 2015 for her book “Who Is Afraid of Women’s Power?” In pursuit of an egalitarian paradise, she found none since she was surprised by the stories of inequality in the supposedly more egalitarian countries.
In Sweden and Netherlands, women have managed to get about 40% of all political positions, but still, all women interviewed pointed out that true equality lies not in numbers but in substance, and that they have yet a long way to go.
“When talking about political participation of women,” said a Dutch woman interviewed “the issue is not only about numbers but the positions of influence. For instance, how many women have jobs in key areas, such us Budget Committees? And how many of them really do gain any visibility?”
That’s why we are far from getting gender equality from all its perspectives. Luckily, there are plenty of women leading the way to the egalitarian paradise.
Sources:
http://communicatio.com.ar/igualdad-genero-las-mujeres-politica-no-existe/
https://consejo.jusbaires.gob.ar/las-mujeres-y-la-justicia-2
Original author: Florencia Gardenal
Translated by: Ignacio Artigas
