Human Rights Commission: "Political Parties Should Not Exceed 60% of a Specific Gender in Nominations"

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has decided to recommend that no more than 60% of candidates nominated by political parties should be of a specific gender. This is to improve the underrepresentation of women's voices in the political arena.

On the 14th, the Human Rights Commission held its 4th plenary meeting to discuss the "Recommendation for Securing Gender-Equal Political Representation." Following the discussion, the Commission will recommend the Speaker of the National Assembly and the leaders of each political party to improve the system to increase the number of female members of the National Assembly.

The core of the recommendation is to prevent any specific gender from exceeding six-tenths of the total. It also requires that the candidate nomination quota system be made mandatory for constituency seats in elections for National Assembly members, local council members, and heads of local governments. Currently, the quota system is only applied to proportional representation seats.

Additionally, the recommendation includes provisions to establish a legal basis for equal political participation of men and women through elections. It advises party leaders to guarantee women's equal participation and to specify implementation measures in party constitutions and regulations. It also demands the establishment and disclosure of gender statistics by rank for key party positions, gender-sensitivity training for party officials and members, and the development of plans to discover and nurture female politicians.

This agenda item was submitted several times to the Human Rights Commission's standing committee since the end of last year but was not approved, so it was referred to the plenary meeting. At the plenary meeting, 9 out of 11 members, including the chairperson, voted in favor, passing the recommendation. The opposing views were presented by Standing Commissioner Lee Sang-chul (nominated by the National Assembly) and Non-standing Commissioner Han Seok-hoon (nominated by the National Assembly). Standing Commissioner Park Chan-woon (nominated by the President) agreed with the recommendation but expressed supplementary opinions.

Meanwhile, according to the Human Rights Commission, the global average proportion of female parliamentarians last year was 25.6%. Nordic countries had 44.5%, and Asia had 20.8%. The proportion of female members of the National Assembly in Korea was 19.0%, which is lower than the global average.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.