After the 12 October General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, about one thousand posts are to be filled via political appointment and indirect elections, including all state, entity, and cantonal-level ministers and deputy ministers, speakers of various parliaments and assemblies, secretaries of parliamentary committees and working bodies as well as hundreds of advisors and other posts at different levels. This is nearly double the number filled by direct elections.
From a gender perspective, the figures also remain to be determined for the number of women in the directly elected seats.
Although parties in general respected the 40 per cent quota in their party lists as stipulated by the BiH Election Law, this does not necessarily translate to gender-balanced parliaments, assemblies and governments.
The post-election appointment process presents both a legal obligation and opportunity to remedy the low-level of women’s participation in the previous four-year period: following the 2010 elections, the political participation of women in state, entity and cantonal legislatures was only about 20 per cent. There were zero women ministers in the BiH Council of Ministers; there were six women in the RS Government and one in the FBiH Government.
20 per cent representation of women is only half of what is stipulated in the BiH Law on Gender Equality, which deems discrimination absent only when the under-represented sex has 40 per cent representation or more.
The traditionally low level of women’s political participation across the country could be attributed to a number of societal factors, many of which are not necessarily unique to BiH. These include disproportional access to the media during the pre-election period, unequal party financing for campaigning and voters’ prejudice towards women politicians.
However, parties have the power and the responsibility to address this situation.
“Political parties have an obligation to promote gender equality not only in the party lists ahead of the elections, but also in the post-election period of appointment. We expect them to adhere to the BiH Law on Gender Equality. Indirectly elected and politically appointed positions hold tremendous power and should be equally available to both women and men,” stated Ambassador Jonathan Moore, Head of the OSCE Mission to BiH.
In addition to the legal obligations within the BiH Law on Gender Equality and BiH Election Law, eight political parties explicitly voiced their commitment earlier this year to fostering equal participation of women and men in public and political life by signing a gender equality pledge. The pledge was developed by the BiH Agency for Gender Equality in consultation with women’s NGOs from across BiH, and specifically calls for parties to “fully respect the BiH Law on Gender Equality and to ensure adherence to legally defined levels of women’s participation in decision making bodies, including, but not limited to, executive structures and legislative and representatives bodies.”
The women and men of Bosnia and Herzegovina deserve this attention and support.
ST
