{"id":2131,"date":"2015-09-30T13:48:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T13:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gqualcampaign.org\/old\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2015-09-30T13:48:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T13:48:10","slug":"gqual-bringing-women-to-the-bench-and-to-the-table-for-beijing20-katy-naples-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gqualcampaign.org\/old\/gqual-bringing-women-to-the-bench-and-to-the-table-for-beijing20-katy-naples-mitchell\/","title":{"rendered":"GQUAL: Bringing Women to the Bench and to the Table for Beijing+20. Katy Naples-Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cindy Soohoo<\/a>\u00a0 introduces one of her CUNY students, who writes the following post:<\/p>\n

By Katy Naples-Mitchell<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year marks the 20th<\/sup> Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women<\/a> \u2013 a convening on women\u2019s human rights that produced the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action<\/a>. Recent press coverage of the anniversary has focused on the Beijing Declaration\u2019s relationship to the new sustainable development goals<\/a>. But a new campaign called GQUAL by the Center for Justice and International Law<\/a> (CEJIL) is taking a different tack by focusing on women\u2019s representation in international positions of power.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What does Beijing+20 have to do with GQUAL?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part G of the 1995 Beijing Declaration addressed \u201cWomen in Power and Decision-making<\/a>,\u201d focusing on the strategic objective to \u201cTake measures to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making.\u201d Although the Declaration was primarily aimed at gender parity commitments within Member States, the Declaration also targeted obligations to bring women into the fold in the upper echelons of international decision-making. For example, in paragraph 193(a), the Declaration explicitly called on the UN to \u201cachieve overall gender equality, particularly at the Professional level and above, by the year 2000\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fast-forward to today:<\/strong><\/p>\n

CEJIL\u2019s new GQUAL campaign reveals the significant shortfalls in reaching these gender equality goals and frames the issue as a violation of states\u2019 obligations to respect the principle of non-discrimination. According to the GQUAL campaign launch materials<\/a>, as of June 2015, women occupied only 21% of all positions within the main international and regional tribunals. In most cases, member states are responsible for nominating and electing candidates for these positions. Not only are they falling short on their non-discrimination obligations, but states also continually fail to circulate transparent guidelines that respect gender parity to ensure equality in candidate nominations and voting processes.<\/p>\n

GQUAL calls for bringing awareness to, and ultimately correcting, the severe gender imbalances in international tribunals and monitoring bodies \u2013 putting the onus on states to nominate qualified women judges to serve on international tribunals. The GQUAL campaign\u2019s strategies will include:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Publicizing the current lack of gender parity within international mechanisms and tribunals<\/p>\n