Nezavisne novine: Bosnia and Herzegovina will by 2010 need to adjust the Election Law and process with the Law on gender equality and CEDAW convention, referred to wanted standards on gender equality in political and public life, says Spomenka Krunić, director of the Gender Center of the Government of the Republic of Srpska.
She says that it is necessary to strengthen and apply the measures for bigger representation of women in elective and nominative administration and on the decision making positions in the state administration, the court, and positions in state companies.
“This is an obligation which our state and its entities have towards the CEDAW convention or the convention on eliminating all forms of women’s discrimination. This convention has a priority over the local laws and it is an integral part of the Constitution of BiH”, explains Krunić.
Nezavisne novine: Do you have the insight in the list of candidates for coming local elections and how many women are represented?
Krunić: The Gender Center, as an expert service that tracks the application of the Law on gender equality in the segment of political and public life, has asked for the information related to coming local elections and candidacy, or positioning women on candidate’s lists. The Central Election Commission has announced the valid lists of candidates, which are not separated by gender. So they did not satisfy their legislative obligation from the Law on gender equality, which in the article 18 defines the obligation of all the Government authorities and all the public institutions to evidence and make accessible to public all data they work on. Because of a short time and because the list have been published several days ago, we did not get the analysis and I hope that the Central Election Commission will help us. We expect that they too have the systematic evidence besides the fact that they did not make it available for public.
Nezavisne novine: What was the situation on the previous elections?
Krunić: According to our analysis from 2004,34% of the candidate lists were women, for the board positions in congresses of municipalities. The rule 4/19 of the Election Law, which says that the minimum of 30% of women needs to be on the lists of candidates, has been respected. This rule actually proposes the obligation that one woman has to be among the first two positions on candidate lists, two women among the first five positions, and three women among the first eight positions. The rules defines that this is the obligation for the less represented gender, and in this case those are the women. That way the legal conditions have been satisfied and requested number of women was on the lists. Political parties had to respect this, and when speaking of mayor positions, 4% of women have been on the lists for candidacy for mayors and city mayors. From the total number of women on the list of candidates, 16% of women have been selected for board positions in congresses of municipalities in the whole BiH, and from 4% of women for the mayor positions, 3% of women were selected. We hope to improve this in comparison to previous period. The situation might be much better when speaking of local level of the governments because we think that it is really important to find women on decision making positions.
Nezavisne novine: How far are the Republic of Srpska, and the Federation of BiH when speaking of respecting the principles of gender equality from developed countries?
Krunić: In Europe around ten countries have 30% of women in the governments. Scandinavian countries are the first ones on the list: Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. Germany and Spain are the next one on the list. There are, of course, different examples of countries from our surroundings which are in the EU, for example Slovenia, which has a very low percent of women involvement on decision making positions and in the parliament and the Government. Slovenia has 6,3% women involvement on decision making positions in the Government, when speaking of the parliament, in 2007 there was 12% in the Lower House, and 7,5 % in the Upper House. Similar situation is in Greece too, where percent of women involvement on decision making positions in 2005 in the Government was 5,6%, and in the parliament in 2007 was 13% of women from the total number. According to that, BiH and the RS are in the average with developed countries when speaking of situation of women involvement in political and public life. Of course, we should not be satisfied with that because in the RS the women involvement has from 2001 and 2007 in the National Assembly of the RS increased on 16 to 20%. Now in this convocation of the National Assembly their involvement is 18%, and when speaking of the Government, there is colorful situation. On the ministerial positions we have only two women, but in the Government departments there are many highly positioned women, on the assisting or deputy positions, positions of the secretary of the ministries, directors of the agencies, and it is possible to say that situation is getting better.
Salary of women 35% smaller
Nezavisne novine: In what measure is the difference in salaries of women and men represented?
Krunić: We do not have relevant investigations on this subject. We have indications that in some areas and in private and the state sector women have less salaries, but not only on level of salaries because earning refers to other benefits, involvement in different commissions, administrative, supervising boards, stipends, awards, etc. We have such individual data we receive from the field, so the status of women and men is not equalized. But since we do not have relevant investigations and the whole picture for the RS, that thesis we can only base on the Report on human development which says that the percent of women salary in comparison to the salary of men in BiH is 65%. It means that a woman earns 35% less than a man.
Nezavisne novine: What is the priority in the next period?
Krunić: In general, there is one more big work we did not succeed to finish. It is related to the state law, which is not an exclusive authorization of the Gender Center of the RS, but it is obviously reflected to both entities. It is about the Election Law, which relates to both entities, which needs to be completely agreed with the Law on gender equality. This is the obligation of the CEDAW convention, or the Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. That convention has a priority over the local laws, it is an integral part of the Constitution of BiH, and we will have to by 2010 agree the Election Law and process with requested standards on gender equality in political and public life. That is the obligation which our state and its entities have towards the convention.
Nezavisne novine: In which business areas are women of BiH mostly, and in which they are minimally represented?
Krunić: When speaking of professional and business areas of work, where the women are represented more, according to data of the Republic Agency for Statistics, the highest percent of women is in the commercial business, and then in the processing industry. After that, they are involved in education, social security, medicine, and in the end, in the state administration, where they are less represented than men. In the main courts the ratio of women and men is almost equal, but when going to the higher level, to the Cantonal, Supreme and the Constitutional Court, the women involvement is reducing, and the most reduced it is in court president positions.