This study is premised on the assumption that women’s right to political participation in
Africa is vital, especially as women constitute half of the population in African states. Since
the 1990s, much attention has been focussed on the role of women in African politics.
Consequently, women’s inclusion, especially in legislatures and in the executive arm of
government, has increased during this period. International and national law, combined
with political will, have been relied upon to ensure that women are included in key decisionmaking
positions in national government. However, women’s political participation in local
government has received less attention, despite the fact that local government may be the
level of government best suited to positively impact on women’s daily lives. Four of the
leading African states in respect of women’s political participation in local government are
Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. The study focuses on these states with a view to
establishing the extent to which they have domesticated international norms that advance
women’s political participation in local government.
Surveying relevant international instruments at the global and Africa regional level, the
study establishes that generally, international law recognises women’s right to participate in
politics. Local government was, in particular, not even mentioned and participation in local
government could be inferred from the wider right to political participation. However,
recent developments in international law are increasingly paying attention to local
government. In addition, attention is increasingly being paid to ensuring that women enjoy
the right to political participation on the basis of equality with men. Consequently, parity in
representation is being promoted and states are expected to domesticate the international
norms to which they are parties in order to realise the goal of equality in political
participation.
States have made efforts to domesticate international norms by including them in their
constitutions or legislation. In addition, states have put in place temporary special measures
focussing on the area of local government. These measures are to be utilised by states, to
ensure that women participate more fully in local government.
vi
With respect to the four states under investigation, it is observed that there is a limited
application of temporary special measures that can be used to promote women’s political
participation in local government. In terms of the actual extent of women’s participation,
the limited available data illustrates a relatively high percentage of women in local
government, especially at the level of councillors where all the four states reviewed are
performing reasonably well. None of the four states has attained gender parity among
directly elected councillors even though the number of women councillors is fairly high in
some of the states. Among other senior local government positions, the rate of including
women is inconsistent. In some cases women are included in substantial numbers but there
are also cases were the inclusion of women is disconcertingly low. States are also failing to
provide detailed information on women’s political participation across all portfolios in local
government. The implication of such shortcomings is that the actual levels of women’s
inclusion remain largely unknown and therefore efforts to address women’s marginalisation
are undermined.
In order to ensure increased political participation of women at the local government level,
a number of measures must be taken. First, efforts should be made at the international level
to further elaborate the right to political participation with particular reference to local
government, especially in so far as indirectly elected or appointed office is concerned. These
are areas of local government where the current norms do not sufficiently advance
women’s inclusion and as a result inclusion of women is inconsistent. Second, human rights
treaty bodies should pay greater attention to questioning states on their performance in
including women in local government. Questioning state performance will create greater
awareness and increase the attention that states pay to women’s political participation in
local government. Third, concerted efforts should be made to streamline legislation on local
government in the four states under review with a view to making it simpler, clearer and
consistent. The current proliferation of laws can create challenges in understanding the
extent to which the law promotes women’s political participation in local government.
Finally, the four states should display greater transparency with regard to providing data on
women’s political participation in local government. Providing sufficient data would enable
proper scrutiny and provide a diachronic picture of developments as far as women and
men’s political participation in local government is concerned. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/37360 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Nsibirwa, Martin Semalulu |
| Contributors | Viljoen, Frans, mnsibirwa@yahoo.com |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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