Women’s Political Participation in The Gambia: Gender Quotas as Fast Track to Equality

Dr Satang Nabaneh

University of Dayton Human Rights Center

Since independence in 1965, numerous laws and policies have been passed to advance gender equality and women's rights in The Gambia. However, the representation of women in positions of power and decision-making within public and private bodies and representative institutions at national and local levels and within political parties remains low.

A cursory look at introduced constitutional reforms worldwide in the past two decades shows that the principle of equality between women and men is increasingly being constitutionalized. The inclusion of women’s rights and gender equality principles is a global trend. According to the UN Women’s Constitution database, issues related to gender equality are typically addressed through constitutional amendments and constitution-making processes. These include general provisions regarding equality and non-discrimination, gender-specific constitutional provisions on women's rights, the right to reproductive healthcare, access to education, protection from violence, and temporary special measures such as quota system. These kinds of provisions draw on both international and regional standards, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). The United Nations at the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women set a gender quota of 30% for women representation in decision-making processes. The Gambia is a party to several of these international legal instruments and commitments.

This blog post gives a snapshot of women’s political participation in The Gambia. It briefly reviews the applicable national legal framework, challenges and opportunities of constitutionalizing quotas. In particular, I argue that there is an urgent need to adopt special measures including legislative gender quota measures to increase women’s access to political participation.

The Gambian Legal Framework 

The 1997 Constitution of the Republic of the Gambia (‘1997 Constitution’) replaced the 1970 Constitution after the military coup d’etat led by Yahya Jammeh. As noted elsewhere, for more than two decades, Jammeh used constitutional amendments to manipulate the political process “with largely anti-human rights and undemocratic provisions.” 

The 1997 Constitution and other relevant laws of The Gambia, including the Women’s Act 2010 have general provisions to support women’s political participation and representation. The Gambia is one of few countries in Africa that have enacted specific legislation to domesticate the provisions of both the CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol in domestic law. 

Despite the country’s willingness to advance women’s rights and political participation, women remain underrepresented. For instance, out of 58 National Assembly members, only six are women lawmakers (with only three elected). Despite women making up more than half of the Gambian population, women account for only 10 percent of parliamentarians, including the speaker. The inadequate political representation of women in decision-making processes is primarily due to legal, political, social, and religious determinants, including patriarchy and poverty. The legal framework in its present form is not comprehensive in securing a substantive right for women in the political realm. For instance, while section 15 of the Women’s Act provides a general obligation to adopt temporary special measures, it did not make a definitive prescription, for example, in the form of electoral gender quotas to reduce gender gaps in representation. In addition, existing laws are grossly inadequate given the socio-cultural barriers that are well entrenched in society against women. A study on women’s political participation and representation shows that patriarchal socio-cultural norms governing power relations in The Gambia influence voters’ expectations and perceptions of female politicians. 

2020 Draft Constitution

After 22 years of autocratic rule, a new President, Adama Barrow, was voted into office in December 2016. In January 2017, the democratic transition formally started when former President Jammeh left office and Barrow was sworn into office. As part of comprehensive legal reform efforts within the transitional justice process, the Barrow government initiated a new constitutional process to establish the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC). The drafting of a new constitution started in June 2018, culminating in the Draft 2020 Constitution. 

The 2020 Draft Constitution outlines several provisions to accelerate substantive equality between men and women. In line with The Gambia’s international human rights obligations, the 2020 Draft Constitution had some innovative provisions to address the challenge of women’s equal representation in the political processes. For example, section 32(2) explicitly forbids discriminatory treatment based on gender. Section 55 further provides equal treatment between men and women, including equal political, economic, and social opportunities. Section 74 sets out general principles for the electoral system, including fair representation of all genders in elective public bodies. The Draft Constitution also provides a quota system that reserves 14 seats in parliament for women.

The push for the adoption of such a constitutional provision is in line with the findings of the nationwide study on women’s political participation and representation, which showed that 89% of all respondents supported the introduction of the quota system. In 2018, the Afrobarometer survey findings showed strong support (85%) by Gambians for constitutional change that would mandate a quota system for women’s representation in the National Assembly. 

Temporary special measures such as quotas can rectify imbalances in political representation by guaranteeing a number of seats for women. However, the constitution-making process is stalled as the proposed Constitution Promulgation Bill of 2020 (‘the Bill’) was rejected by the National Assembly. As noted elsewhere, the Bill did not pass due to partisanship and extreme political polarization. There was not enough proactive engagement in consensus building by all political actors. 

Despite the delay in adopting a new constitution, civil society is currently using these progressive provisions to enhance the legal framework on these matters, including the introduction of a private member bill. A private member’s bill is usually introduced into the National Assembly by a Parliamentarian who is not a Cabinet member and is not acting on behalf of the Executive branch as provided in section 101(1) of the 1997 Constitution. Hon. Fatoumatta Njie, one of three elected women parliamentarians in The Gambia, worked with the Civil Society Gender Platform on Transitional Justice and development partners to develop a private member bill to increase women’s representation in the National Assembly. 

The bill proposes increasing the total number of seats in The Gambia’s National Assembly from 58 to 71, reserving 16 seats for women assembly members. 14 would be elected from each region; persons with disabilities will elect one woman from amongst them, and the President would appoint one. While the revitalization of the draft Constitution is ongoing, the private member bill effort (which, if passed, would entail a constitutional amendment) would already be beneficial for advancing women’s rights.

However, a key question has arisen as to what will be the modalities for electing the women parliamentarians? It would be helpful to draw from other countries with a quota system to address this. For example, the revised 1995 Constitution of Uganda institutionalized the quota system by providing for a number of reserved seats in the national parliament equal to the number of districts in the country. Each district elects a female parliamentary representative. In this case, reserved seats are organized as single-member ‘women’s districts’ constituencies, designed as first-past-the-post districts. In essence, for the Ugandan model, a one-woman representative is elected by universal suffrage in each district – which may consist of multiple counties (constituencies) – indirectly contested ‘female candidate only’ elections.

Equally, in the case of The Gambia, it is proposed that parliamentarians for the female-reserved seats be elected and not appointed to enhance the legitimacy of these parliamentary seats. While it has been argued that this may promote a static view of “women” as a group and push for a parallel process that affects equal voting rights, in the Gambian case this is necessary as a time-limited positive measure that is intended to provide opportunities for historically and systematically disadvantaged groups, in this case, women. Political parties remain primarily structured in the patriarchal system where men usually lead, and women play supportive roles. In some instances, women are given token positions that lack the necessary power and authority. The presence of ‘yaye compins’ and the use of women as mobilizers, campaigners, cheerleaders, cooks and voters remain the central character roles in political parties. For example, none of the 18 registered political parties is led by a woman, while only a few have women deputy party leaders. During the December 4, 2021 elections, only one woman, Marie Sock, filed her nomination for the presidency, which was rejected by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as she did not meet the requirements. In this context, it is clear that there is an urgent need to adopt an Affirmative Action Bill to ensure women’s representation in political processes and decision-making organs such as parliament. Women’s participation as credible candidates in electoral processes and as active voters must be promoted.

Conclusion 

Increasing women’s representation and participation in governance and public affairs can play a central role in building momentum for progressive policy and legal reforms, changing adverse social norms, and promoting accountability. In order to tackle negative gender stereotypes, women’s political participation and representation must be founded on strong laws and institutions backed by unwavering political commitment. As is clear, the legal framework in its present form has not been as comprehensive in securing substantive rights for women in the political realm. Thus, it is urgent to adopt legislative, administrative, and other regulatory measures to increase women’s access to political participation and decision-making to overcome structural barriers faced in politics and other predominantly 'male-oriented' leadership positions. After 22 years of authoritarian rule, The Gambia should create new opportunity structures for women within political and decision-making processes and advance gender equality.

Dr Satang Nabaneh is the Director of Programs at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center (USA) and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Pretoria (South Africa)

Suggested Citation: Satang Nabaneh, Women’s Political Participation in The Gambia: Gender Quotas as Fast Track to Equality’, IACL-AIDC Blog (25 January 2022) https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/spotlight-on-africa/2022/1/25/womens-political-participation-in-the-gambia-gender-quotas-as-fast-track-to-equality.