Peruvian women safeguard political gender balance

National workshop closing the Training Programme for women politicians, Peru, April 2009
Photo ©: IDEA

Women in Peru have been taking steps to make sure they are fairly and effectively represented in government. International IDEA has been providing technical assistance to draft a Bill submitted by the Secretary for Women. It was drawn up as part of the debate surrounding the elimination of the Preferential Vote which many feel would jeopardize women’s candidacies. The Council of Ministers agreed to accept it, as a modification in the event that the proposal to eliminate the Preferential Vote is approved in Congress and passed to the Executive.

International IDEA has also proposed drafting a Bill to ensure the same gender replacement in the lists for regional and municipal elections. The suggestion has been accepted by Congresswoman Marisol Espinoza, of Congress’ Constitutional Commission, and IDEA has offered technical assistance. The Bill is currently pending in the debate taking place in the Constitutional Commission and is considered especially important as it will allow the Peruvian government to tackle irregularities in compliance with the gender quota – which reach 20% in the lists for regional elections. A case has been presented to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) against the government on this issue. If the Bill is approved, the discarded women candidates would have to be replaced by other women, which would help avoid non-compliance with gender quotas.

In a separate initiative, in April 2009, nearly 100 women have completed a training programme to equip them for political leadership, and dealing with media and equality issues. The participants were selected from political parties in 12 regions across the country. As well as strengthening their leadership capability the programme aimed to promote cultural dialogue between different parties and improve the quality of debate within their own parties. During the course the women delivered replica training exercises in their own social and political organizations, so more than 800 people benefited overall.

At the end of the programme the participants consolidated their learning with internships involving visiting central and municipal government bodies, ministries and Congress. The retention rate of 90% suggests the programme attracted a high level of commitment and interest.