Reaching toward an equal constitution in Libya

The National Congress in Libya is at a pivotal point for women’s inclusion in government as it debates a draft electoral law to guide future elections for the Constitutional Assembly. This is an essential area of concern, as the Constitutional Assembly is in charge of writing Libya’s new constitution.

Women representatives in the National Congress are reported to be facing mounting pressure to approve the draft electoral law. The Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace (LWPP) organized a two-day session in Tripoli last month to address the law in question which they called “an obstacle to inclusive representation.’’

The inclusion of women in democratic changes taking place in post-conflict countries like Libya is a focus of Gender Concerns International’s missions. Our Gender Election Monitoring (GEM) mission for the National Congress Elections of Libya in July 2012 ventured into new territory as it reported on the first Libyan election to include women’s participation in four decades. And even with female representation in the Assembly, our GEM report noted, “equality does not just emanate from the numbers of women in a parliament, but how they use their voice effectively to influence policy and decision-making.” 

The GEM report further concluded the need in Libya to “harness further support in order to ensure that the level of women’s empowerment achieved to date is seen as a benchmark to beat and not a threshold to be maintained.”

Click here for the complete Libya Gender Election Monitoring Mission Report 2012

More information: the Libyan electoral law