By Saio Marrah
In what many gender activists have referred to as a bnetrayal of women, the proposed 30% safe seat clause for Women has been omitted from the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Bill 2021. The clause is the most talked about that was removed.
Sierra Leone’s Parliament on the 15th November 2022 enacted into law the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Bill 2021, following a series of debates. The proposed safe seat which could have reserved quota in elective positions for women in parliament and councils amongst others, was expunged.
The bill suggested at least 30% women in appointive positions in public offices; however the appointments are at the president’s discretion.
During the deliberations, most MPs agreed that safe seat will contravene Section 27 of the country’s 1991 constitution, which indicates that there should be no law that discriminates against certain set of people and that the safe seat idea gives women preference which can be considered discriminatory.
“In this section the expression "discriminatory" means affording different treatment to different persons attributable wholly or mainly to their respective descriptions by race, tribe, sex, place of origin, political opinions, colour or creed whereby persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another such description are not made subject, or are accorded privileges or advantages which are not accorded to persons of another such description”- Section 27 subsection (2) 1.
They agreed that the Public Elections Act of 2022 addresses the area of reserved seat by ensuring that for every three symbols awarded by political parties for elections, there must be one woman.
It was also included in the bill that all maternity leave should be 14weeks instead of the previous 12 week duration.
However, the Parliamentarian representing Constituency 132 Tawa Ibrahim Conteh argued the system does not guarantee women the 30% quota.
In an interview with journalists after passage of the bill, the Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Manty Tarawalli said: “A lot of the changes came from us as a result of the consultation that we did. It was for the house of Parliament to send us away to do more extensive consultations.”
Tarawalli promised to implement the new law into full effect; she explained that they will ensure that gender mainstreaming is included in all legal frameworks.
A well-known Politician Fatmata Sawanneh told journalists that it was a difficult journey in passing the bill into law.
She also thanked President Julius Maada Bio for being “gender -minded” and for giving all the support required for the law to sail through. Sawanneh said the President knows that women are also capable of occupying the seats men have.
Commenting on the issue of safe seat, she said it takes one step at a time. She made reference to other African countries like Zimbabwe and Rwanda that have a female dominated Parliament saying they started on a similar trend.
Other stakeholders like Civil Society Activists and Parliamentarians made similar comments to journalists after the bill became law.
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