Journalist: When will there be enough women on the U.S. Supreme Court?
"When there are nine. For a long time there were nine men and no one questioned it.".
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and IAWJ partner
A few days ago in Buenos Aires something extraordinary happened that only takes place every two years. More than 1,000 judges from all corners of the world came to this country, of all ages, races, colors and religions, from different jurisdictions, courts and judicial hierarchies, but all united by a common associative project, an exciting international project whose flag is real equality and justice with a gender perspective.
The XIV Biennial Conference of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) took place in the aforementioned Argentine city from May 2 to 6, 2018, with judges from more than 78 countries around the world, this time with the suggestive title "Building Bridges between the Women Judges of the World", under the brilliant organization of the Association of Women Judges of Argentina (AMJA) led by its president, Susana Medina, vice president of the Superior Court of Justice of Entre Ríos.
The IAWJ is a non-profit NGO that was founded in 1991, driven by 50 judges with headquarters in Washington DC (USA). It currently has more than 5,000 associated judges in nearly 100 countries around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It is a cross-cutting gender association that represents all levels of the judiciary, investing time, effort, knowledge and the sensitivity and experience of a group of jurists who, above all, know that "without equality there is no justice."
This conference has returned more empowered judges, with a common slogan repeated 'More Women, More Justice'
The mission of the IAWJ is to fight for the human rights of women and girls, eradicating unequal opportunities between men and women and gender violence that persists in societies around the world. Judicial systems still do not guarantee equitable access to justice for women around the world, which is why this association promotes the training of those who judge to eradicate stereotypes and sexist roles, advancing in gender-sensitive courts that promote human rights.
Its objectives include the development of a global network of women judges; exchange of judicial information at the international level; being at the forefront in judicial education programs that eliminate gender bias and promote equal access for women and minors to courts of justice. It also develops and directs a wide variety of programs in areas such as judicial leadership in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Nepal and Nigeria; improving judicial systems to respond to violence against women and girls; the judicial role in cases of human trafficking, support networks and dialogue for women judges in Egypt, Jordan, Libya and Tunisia, and the visibility of "sextortion", a form of corruption in which sex, not money, is the currency of bribery.
One of the peculiarities of this associative project, which differentiates it from the rest, is the solidarity of its members, since judges with greater remunerative capacity help economically to cover the travel expenses of those judges with lower purchasing power (India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malawi, Syria, Nigeria etc.), so that they can explain in their Congresses what the situation of women and girls is in their respective countries.
Spain is also part of the IAWJ, through the Association of Women Judges of Spain (AMJE), which had a warm reception at the 2016 Conference in Washington DC, but this year the AMJE has participated in two interventions programmed within the training days of the Congress: in the discussion table "Judging with a gender perspective" and in the educational session "Conversation with the Minister of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg".
The 14th IAWJ Conference: "Building Bridges between the Women Judges of the World"
The receptivity of women in justice to the IAWJ project has been a global success, making the association an international benchmark in the fight for equal justice. That is why the IAWJ Congresses are exceptional, not only for the technical treatment of the matters discussed but also for the powerful information exchange and the plurality of jurisprudential approaches to move towards a common goal: gender equity.
The XIV Biennial Conference brought together in the Hilton Hotel of Puerto Madero, judges from all over the planet and some of them, like the Pakistani women, were leaving their country for the first time in their lives, there were also politically persecuted and even exiled judges. But all the magistrates built bridges in a Congress that transcended borders and returned more empowered judges, with a common slogan repeated ad infinitum: More Women, More Justice.
Of the 15 educational sessions of the Congress, I highlight the following:
Inaugural Conference: Gender Violence
The magistrate of the Supreme Court of Argentina and co-founder of the IAWJ, Elena Highton, analyzed the programs of assistance to women and judicial training that are being implemented in the Argentine Judiciary from the Offices of Domestic Violence and Women, created from the same Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (CSJN) with the objective of promoting, in the sphere of the Judicial Power, a process of incorporation of the gender perspective in the institutional planning and in the internal processes, in order to achieve gender equity, both for those who use the justice system and for those who work in it.
Subsequently, the Governor of the city of Buenos Aires, Mª Eugenia Vidal, spoke, who highlighted as an imperative need the integration of women in all social spheres and their respective domes.
Development in Laws against gender violence: Femicide, Belén Do Pará Convention and other innovations
In this educational table there were interventions of magistrates from Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala, Mexico, Haiti and Ecuador.
The existing legal tools in the various countries of the panelists were provided, such as the creation of the Gender Commission implemented in the Supreme Court of Peru, from where the establishment of binding criteria that judges must follow in the administration of justice in cases of femicides has been promoted.
Guatemala and Paraguay also shared their respective judicial measures to achieve the administration of justice with a gender perspective in all cases of male chauvinist violence.
From Mexico, the magistrate of the Supreme Court, Margarita Luna Ramos, shared the good results obtained after the implementation of the first protocol in the world, "To Judge with a Gender Perspective", which has been a very important advance in equality (real) from the entrails of justice. Three substantial problems were highlighted when talking about gender violence:
- To assume that violence against women is a Human Rights problem;
- The existing resistance from academic sectors, which do not value this type of violence with patterns different from individual violence;
- The need to make visible the real figure of all the faces of gender violence.
The legal situation of women: global perspectives
With panelists from Myanmar, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine, Colombia and Panama. It was especially rich in contributions with very diverse visions, depending on the origin of the magistrates.
The judge from Myanmar highlighted that human rights are limited to women from the institutions themselves, advocating changes that transcend formal laws.
Rabba Al Zreqat, the Syrian magistrate, spoke about the life of Arab women, their scarce political participation and motherhood. She spoke of the war, the displacements, and the physical and psychological torture suffered by women in prisons. She highlighted the slow progress of Syrian women in the conquest of legal equality, in a country where honor crimes are still in force for men who murder women suspected of adultery. A country that does not allow women divorce, or custody of their children, among many other violations of their human rights.
The Afghan magistrate highlighted the inequitable distribution of education and lack of training of judges.
The Palestinian judge spoke of justice in her country and the scarce presence of women in the judicial and fiscal career and the null support existing from the institutions.
Finally, the Argentine magistrate Maria Soledad Gennari, illustrated us with the experience of the province of Neuquén where the first observatory of sentences with a gender perspective connected to the women's office of the Argentine Supreme Court has been created, all this together with protocols for the observation of violent deaths of women.
A video of Maria (Iranian judge) was also shared in which she vindicates the equal rights of Iranian women who only inherit half of the men, lack the right to divorce without the permission of their husbands, are prohibited from being judges because the new regime separated all existing magistrates from their positions, and the judicial testimony of a man can only be questioned with the testimony of another man or that of two women. In addition, the Penal Code of this country stipulates that if a woman is murdered and there is a sexual allegation as a motive on the part of the husband, father or grandfather, the murder is not punished.
AOL
Judging with a Gender Perspective
Judges from Montenegro, Pakistan, Morocco, Philippines, Korea, Argentina and Spain participated.
In this discussion table, in which I had the honor of participating, there was an important exchange of information, with the contribution of stereotypical sentences from the participating countries. I want to make special reference to the presentation of the president of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the magistrate Teresita Leonardo de Castro, who highlighted the lack of training that prevails in the justice systems of the whole world and that makes difficult the conquest of real equality, substantially in gender crimes (sexual crimes, intrafamily violence etc).
My presentation was eminently practical, sharing resolutions with a gender perspective and also stereotypical ones. I explained the methodology of the administration of justice with a gender perspective, as hermeneutics, through the different phases of the judicial processes and I presented the proposals that, from the social practice, we are implementing in Spain from the AMJE. All of them are aimed at gender training to overcome prejudices and sexist roles, especially highlighting our program of transformative education from socioconstructivism "Educating in Equal Justice", with more than 3000 young people attached to it and approximately 150 judicial operators of all levels of justice who also train in gender to train students (formative reversibility).
Health and Reproductive Rights
Magistrates from Kenya, Argentina and the USA were the protagonists of this educational table.
The data thrown by the magistrate of Kenya Hannah Okwengu, put in evidence in a shocking way, that 21% of women have suffered genital mutilation and recalled "that those who judge can and should help the victims through the interpretation of the Constitution favoring the strengthening of law and freedom".
Ademola Olajide presented on behalf of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), that in 2020, 142 million women will marry before the age of 18, and nearly 200 million girls and women suffered some type of genital mutilation at some point in their lives.
Global Network of Judicial Integrity (UNODC). 'Sextortion'
Jurists from Morocco, Sri Lanka, USA and Argentina participated in this table.
'Sextortion' is a global phenomenon that has a devastating impact on women, it is the abuse of power that translates into a personal benefit of a sexual nature. In this panel, the work done by the IAWJ to fight against this scourge was shared, which can be summarized in the following lines of action:
- awareness about 'sextortion';
- reform of anti-corruption laws and codes of ethics to specifically prohibit 'sextortion';
- collection of data on 'sextortion';
- creation of safe information mechanisms for women and other vulnerable people;
- provide protection for those who report 'sextortion';
- and penalize 'sextortion' to the same extent as other forms of corruption, such as economic corruption.
The IAWJ internationally leads the fight against 'sextortion' with presentations, workshops, conferences and awareness activities in Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tunisia.
Building Bridges with Allied Men
Conversation with Men who support the Women Judges and the IAWJ.
Judges from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and the USA participated in this panel. This was a particularly interesting table, in which voice was given to allied judges in this fight for Equality from justice.
The magistrate Rafael de Menezes (Brazil), highlighted that in his country the National Judicial Council proposed to fight against gender violence based on the Maria da Penha law and referred to various stereotypical judicial resolutions.
The Mexican magistrate Augusto Pérez Juarez, president of the Superior Court of Justice of Mexico City, highlighted the urgent need for the integration of women in all judicial hierarchies. He also said that the 32 states of Mexico are currently involved in a new way of administering justice that is more equitable and with a gender perspective.
Judge Santiago Otamendi, from Argentina, vindicated the need to integrate women equally in justice, and with them the talent and capacities that male judges lack, for example the capacity to listen to victims of trafficking. "Without women, justice has a biased view that does not represent the entire population, only half of it," he said.
All the participants highlighted that the changes that are being promoted from justice to advance in Equality (real), always produce an initial rejection from the judiciary itself, because we are facing a change of judicial culture, but this is something inevitable and implicit in any major reform, then when time passes the improvements and the social and judicial progress are evidenced.
Conclusions
The Congress ended on May 6, with the celebration of the General Assembly of the IAWJ and the election of the new positions, among them the presidency, which will be assumed during the biennium 2018-2020 by the magistrate of the USA, Vanessa Ruiz, who announced that the next International Congress will be held in New Zealand in 2020.
The positions of the Board of Directors of the five regions of the IAWJ were also democratically elected, and in the case of the Region of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East I had the honor of being elected by the colleagues of that region, together with the colleague Saida Chebili, president of the Association of Women Judges of Tunisia. There is much work to be done on the paved road to Equality (Real) but also much enthusiasm and international energy to invest in an exciting common project.
The Buenos Aires Conference has been an enriching vital experience of bringing together judges from all over the planet, through an exchange of information and legal knowledge from an international perspective, with effective proposals.
It has been a Congress in which the women judges of the world have joined efforts and built bridges towards the same goal: the defense of an equal Justice, with a gender perspective, and all this in a global and holistic way, because justice is an international right of all human beings, which admits no exceptions because without Women, rights are not rights but privileges.
