Challenges with implementing political leadership and decision-making participatory rights for women in Ethiopia

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Citation: (2018) 5(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 45
• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Author: Abegaz, S.T.
• Pages: 45-72
• Date: 16 August 2019

45

CHALLENGES WITH IMPLEMENTING

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND DECISION-

MAKING PARTICIPATORY RIGHTS FOR

WOMEN IN ETHIOPIA

Solomon Tekle Abegaz* and Workantif Desalegne Asfaw**

Abstract

Globally, several interventions have been made to enablewomen to participate in

political leadership and decision-making positions. However, women remain under-

represented in these positions. The aim of this article is to assess the challenges

with implementing political leadership and decision-making participatory rights

for women using Bahirdar city administration as a case study.The findings of the

study show that women face low considerations in political leadership and decision-

making, and that they hold lower non-decision making and leadership positions

in the city administration. More importantly, the findings show that a wide range

of socio-cultural attitudes, conflict of balance between domestic and public life,lack

of confidence and unwillingness by women themselves, and others prevent a more

equal representation of women in the city administration executive power structure.

Therefore, effor ts, such asthe creation of an enabling environment to enhance women’s

participation in politics, the provision of women-related civic projects, the creation of

awareness among young girls in schools through civic and ethical education about the

importance of women’s political representation are recommended to enhance women’s

political participation in the city in order to contribute to ensuring gender parity in

the country in accordance to AU 2063 Agenda.

Keywords: Bahirdar, decision making, political leadership, women, women’s

political participatory rights.

Résumé

Globalement, plusieurs interventions ont été faites pour permettre aux femmes

de participer aux postes de direction et de prise de décision politique. Cependant,

les femmes restent sous-représentées dans ces postes. Le but de cet article est

d’évaluer les défis dans la mise en œuvre du leadership et de la prise de décision

politique en ce qui concerne les droits de participation pour les femmes, en utilisant

l’administration de la ville de Bahirdar comme une étude de cas. Les constats de

l’étude démontrent que les femmes sont confrontées à une faible prise en compte

dans la direction et la prise de décision politique, et qu’elles occupent des postes

inferieurs non-décisionnaires et de direction dans l’administration des villes. Plus

* LLD (Pretor ia), LLM (Addis Ababa), LLB (Addis Ababa) and Assistant Professor of Law, School

of Law, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia. Email: solomomte@gmail.com. Our thanks go to

Judy Price for reviewing and commenting on the first draft of the article.

** LLM (Gondar), LLB (Addis Ababa) and Judge at City Appellate Court, Amhara National

Regional State, Wollo, Ethiopia. Email: workantif.desalegne@yahoo.com.

(2018) 5(2) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 45

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46 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 5, NO 2, 2018

important encore, les constats montrent qu’un large éventail d’attitudes socio-

culturels, un déséquilibre entre la vie familiale et la vie publique, un manque de

confiance et un manque de volonté de la part des femmes elles-mêmes et les autres

empêchent une représentation plus égale des femmes dans la structure du pouvoir

exécutif de l’administration de la ville. Ainsi, les efforts, tels que la conscientisation

des jeunes filles dans des écoles, par le biais de l’enseignement civique et éthique

relative à l’importance de la représentation des femmes dans le domaine politique

sont recommandées pour améliorer la participation politique des femmes dans la

ville afin de contribuer à la réalisation de l’égalité des sexes au pays, conformément

à l’Agenda 2063 de l’UA.

Mots clés: Bahirdar, prise de décision, direction politique, femmes, droits de

participation politique des femmes

Introduction

Over the years, t he issue of women’s political ri ghts and thei r equal

partic ipation in politic al leadersh ip and in deci sion makin g has become

increasi ngly promi nent in world politics . This topic ha s received varied

treatment by the Un ited Nations ( UN) and its s peciali sed agencies.1

Sustain able developmentin a societ y cannot be br ought about without

the ful l and unrese rved part icipation of both women and me n. Such a

balanced development s hould also ca ll for the eli minat ion of all form s

of discr imina tion agai nst women. After t he establi shment of the UN

in 1946, there was inc reasing recog nition amon g the internat ional

communit y of women’s historic exclusion from s tructu res of power.

The principle of the e qualit y of men and women was recog nised in the

1945 UN Charter, and a gain lat er in the 1948 Universa l Declarat ion

of Human Ri ghts (U DHR). The Interna tional Covenant on Civ il and

Political R ights (ICCPR) went f urther to obl ige the state pa rties to

ensure the ef fectiveness of women’s political par ticipation in public af fairs

without disc rimi nation on the gr ound of sex.2 The UN a lso adopted a

Convention on the Eli minat ion of all Form s of Discri minat ion again st

Women (CEDAW ). It concerns women’s access to decision ma king in

political a nd public life. T he Beijing Declar ation and Platfor m of Action

(BDPA) also deal ex tensively wit h the issue of women in power and

decision mak ing. It requires government s to attain a 30% benchm ark for

women’s representation in al l public decision-maki ng positions. Further,

1 For instance, the UN has dedicated Goal 5 in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

to achieve gender equality and empower all women and g irls. See UN, ‘Goal 5: Achieve gender

equality and empower all women and girls’, viewed 31 October, 2018, from https://www.un.org/

sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/; UN Women, ‘Women and the Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs)’, viewed 31 October, 2018, from http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/

women-and-the-sdgs.

2 Inter national Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 999 UNTS 171 (1966), articles 3 and 25.

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