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Creating Legislative Access for Women to Political Space in Guyana

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Creating Legislative Access for Women to Political Space in Guyana IDRC Research Report 106430-001 Getting to One-Third? Creating Legislative Access for Women to Political Space in Guyana 1 By Natalie Persadie 1 Citation: Persadie, Natalie. “Getting to One-Third? Creating Legislative Access for Women to Political Space in Guyana.” In Politics, Power and Gender Justice in the Anglophone Caribbean: Women’s Understandings of Politics, Experiences of Political Contestation and the Possibilities for Gender Transformation IDRC Research Report 106430-001, by Principal Investigator Gabrielle Jamela Hosein and Lead Researcher Jane Parpart. Ottawa, ON Canada: International Development Research Centre, 2014. i Table of Contents List of Acronyms..........................................................................................................................iv Preface............................................................................................................................................v Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………vii 1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Organisation of Chapter; Ontology; Methodology .................................................................1 2.0 The International and Regional Framework for Quotas Systems .......................................2 2.1 International Instruments........................................................................................................2 2.2 Regional Instruments .............................................................................................................4 2.2.1 The Charter for Civil Society for the Caribbean Community...........................................4 2.2.2 Inter-American Convention on the Granting of Political Rights to Women ....................5 2.3 The Inherent Challenges with these Instruments ..................................................................6 3.0 What are Gender Quotas in Politics? .....................................................................................7 3.1 Quota Types across the World: Legal Quotas and Policy-Based Quotas............................9 3.1.1 Legal Quotas .................................................................................................................10 A. Candidate Quotas ..........................................................................................................10 B. Reserved Seats..............................................................................................................10 3.1.2 Policy-Based Quotas.....................................................................................................12 A. Party Quotas ..................................................................................................................12 3.2 Gender Quotas and Critical Mass........................................................................................14 3.2 Descriptive versus Substantive Representation..................................................................15 3.4 Getting to Yes in Establishing Quotas .................................................................................15 3.5 Electoral Gender Quotas: Yes or No? .................................................................................17 4.0 Political Gender Quotas in the Caribbean............................................................................20 4.1 The Anglophone Caribbean: Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize .........21 4.1.1 Jamaica .........................................................................................................................21 4.1.2 The Bahamas ................................................................................................................22 4.1.3 Trinidad and Tobago .....................................................................................................22 4.1.4 Belize.............................................................................................................................24 4.2 The Non-Anglophone Caribbean: Haiti, Dominican Republic..............................................26 4.2.1 Haiti................................................................................................................................26 4.2.2 The Dominican Republic ...............................................................................................27 4.3 Women in Positions of Political Power in the Caribbean.....................................................27 5.0 Getting to One-Third? The Quota System in Guyana .........................................................28 5.1 The Electoral System in Guyana .........................................................................................28 5.2 Constitutional Reform: Towards the Adoption of a Legislative Gender Quota ...................29 5.2.1 The Socio-Political Context of Change in Guyana .......................................................31 5.2.2 Sites of Resistance: The CRC ......................................................................................35 5.2.3 Sites of Resistance: Parliament....................................................................................38 5.2.4 Sites of Resistance: Culture and Race.........................................................................40 5.2.5 The Recommendations that Went Forward ..................................................................41 5.3 The Legislative Framework for the Gender Quota System.................................................43 5.3.1 Issues Arising ................................................................................................................44 A. Extraction .......................................................................................................................44 B. Prioritisation of the List...................................................................................................48 C. Substantive Representation...........................................................................................49 D. Challenging the System.................................................................................................51 E. Implementation...............................................................................................................53 6.0 Conclusion: Is the Struggle worth it?...................................................................................53 ii 7.0 Appendix A...............................................................................................................................56 Appendix B.......…………………………………………………………………………………58 8.0 Bibliography.....………………………………………………………………………………….59 9.0 Interviews………………………………………………………………………………………...68 List of Tables Table 1. Women in parliament in Nordic countries...........................................................................9 Table 2: Quota systems adopted in countries throughout the world..............................................13 Table 3: Women representation in national parliaments in the independent Anglophone Caribbean............................................................................................................................21 Table 4: Number of seats allotted per region .................................................................................29 Table 5: Political parties’ responses to questions posed by the Women and Gender Equality Commission ........................................................................................................................46 Table 6: Percentage of women extracted off the list per party in elections held since the implementation of the gender quota...................................................................................47 Table 7: Number and percentage of women holding seats in parliament for the period 1992- 2011 ....................................................................................................................................48 iii List of Acronyms APNU A Partnership for National Unity (Guyana) CARICOM Caribbean Community CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women CIM Inter-American Commission on Women CIWIL Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership CRC Constitution Reform Commission (Guyana) GIC Gender Integration Committee (Belize) ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights IDEA International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance IDRC International Development Research Centre IGDS Institute for Gender and Development Studies List PR List Proportional Representation MDG Millenium Development Goal NGO Non-Governmental Organisation OAS Organisation of American States OC Oversight Committee (Guyana) PNC People’s National Congress (Guyana) PPP/C People’s Progressive Party/Civic (Guyana) PSSC Parliamentary Special Select Committee (Guyana) PUP People’s United Party (Belize) The Network Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women UN United Nations UWI University of West Indies WAMM Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting WEDO Women’s Environment and Development Organisation WPA Working People’s Alliance (Guyana) iv Preface This chapter is one of several outputs of a research project undertaken between 2011 and 2014 by the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) at the University of West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine campus. Titled Politics, Power and Gender Justice in the Anglophone Caribbean: Women’s Understandings
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