CNJ (National Council of Justice) has approved a rule to guarantee gender parity in Courts of Justice
The measure aims to address the low number of women working as Appeals Court Judges
By a majority vote on Tuesday 26, the National Council of Justice (CNJ) passed a normative act for the implementation of a gender rotation system for posts in Appeals Courts in Brazil.
According to the proposal that has been approved, courts will have to create calls for applications that alternate between mixed and exclusive lists until there is an equal number of men and women.Last week, adviser Salise Sanchotene, rapporteur on the ruling, said in her vote that “it is not merely a question of promoting judges but rather of guaranteeing democracy.”
In the same week, Gabriel Sampaio, director of advocacy and litigation at Conectas, made an oral argument in the case and defended the measure. He said that we cannot normalise the structural inequality that excludes women from positions of power. “We need to radically commit to addressing the social inequalities in our country which include the issues of gender and race”.
The lawyer Raissa Belintani, coordinator of the Conectas Strengthening Democratic Space programme, believes it is clear that the fact that women are not being promoted in judicial careers is not related to technical capacity but rather to the structural gender inequality that exists in Brazilian institutions. “Any measure that aims to rectify this historic inequality and to bring about institutional representativeness is welcome and will contribute to strengthening democracy.”
Gender inequality in the judiciary
According to data on the platform JUSTA, Most of those occupying positions as judges are men (60% men and 40% women). And the inequality gap is even wider as you progress up the career ladder to Appeal Court judges (77% men and 23% women). In other words, the higher the court, the less gender representation.
