Miguel Piedecasas, president of the Council of the Judiciary, warned this Thursday (8.03.2018) that although the 49 percent of the nearly 20 thousand employees of the Judiciary are women, the percentage has dropped by 5 percent in the last two years and only 30 percent of the candidates for selection of magistrates are women.
In this context, He committed all officials of the institution he presides over and members of the National Congress to "include the gender perspective, in addition to suitability and technical solvency for the appointment of judges."
During a tribute event for International Women's Day held at the Council's headquarters with prestigious speakers such as Elena Highton de Nolasco and María Lilia Gómez Alonso de Díaz Cordero, Piedecasas highlighted "the high personal and institutional value of the women present and of all those who work in the Judiciary" and assured that "Our commitment is to your struggle«.
"The Council has done a lot of work on gender issues, although progress has only been partial. Of the 19.798 people working in the Judiciary, in 2015, 54,75 percent were women and this year it dropped to 49,05", he reported Piedecasas, following a detailed analysis of the situation that was carried out this week together with the Judiciary Selection Committee.
"This is a wake-up call, notwithstanding that there are variables of all kinds," he clarified. "However, the Women magistrates occupy 30 percent of the positions and the rest are men.. "We need to do a thorough analysis of this," he said, adding: "It is true that the Council does not appoint or create the positions, but we do participate in the selection of the judges and that is where we must work."
According to the report, the In 2015, 15 percent of the candidates were women; in 55, this figure rose to 2016 percent, and last year, 32 percent of the candidates were women."Although we have noticed a greater female presence in the competitions, we must continue working with the Senate so that more women are appointed," he urged. Piedecasas, who asked for "the modification of the competition regulations so that, in addition to being based on technical solvency and suitability, it is also influenced by the gender perspective."
For its part, Elena Highton de Nolasco, vice president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, began her presentation by declaring her support for the international women's strike and highlighting that "what is never recognized are the household chores that women carry out on a daily basis in addition to work, although now at least sometimes men wash the dishes or take care of the children a little more."
She also claimed that "women still do not occupy the same positions and do not have the same salaries as men." However, her greatest concern was focused on violence. The judge said that "Femicides are what must be eradicated the fastest. There is one every 30 hours and more than a thousand reported cases of domestic violence per month.«.
Regarding the role of women in the Judiciary, Highton de Nolasco considered that "if we are now 30 percent of female judges, We should be 52 percent, proportional to how many of us there are in the population.» and called for more reports and studies regarding the gender perspective, since she considered that «without statistics there is no policy, whether gender or anything else».
In turn, the president of the Association of Magistrates, Maria Lilia Gomez Alonso de Diaz Cordero, claimed that "it took almost 90 years to realize that women could access this position that I have today, but luckily now I am one more within the association and I have the collaboration of everyone, men and women who make it up equally."
The magistrate also He demanded that female judges be more than 30 percent"Not only because we are equal, but in a certain way we are often better, since we put a little heart into reason."
In turn, Delia Ferreira Rubio, president of Transparency International, highlighted that "there is one aspect that makes women more exposed to corruption and that is a notable difference throughout the world: when it comes to Small corruption, they are the first face of the official who begins to ask for a bribe and it is in the form of sex"Here, he said, adding that "this is where corruption is linked to gender and the statistics are very high."
Victoria Itzcovitz, representing Graciela Fernández Meijide, who had a health problem and was unable to attend, thanked the Council of the Judiciary for the special tribute.
Also present at today's event along with Piedecasas were Liliana Catucci (Member of the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber), Cristina Leiva (Vice President of the Association of Women Judges of Argentina), Alicia Tate (Director of the Human Rights Unit of the Council of the Judiciary), Adriana Donato (Councillor), Maia Volcovinsky (Representative of the Board of Directors of the Union of Judicial Employees), Ines Weinberger (President of the Superior Court of Justice of the City of Buenos Aires), Ana María Conde (Vice President of the Superior Court of Justice of the City of Buenos Aires), Luis María Cabral (Councillor), Jorge Candis (Councillor), Leónidas Moldes (Councillor), Juan Bautista Maiques (Councillor), Luis García (President of the National Criminal and Correctional Cassation Chamber), Agustín Cinto (General Administrator of the Judiciary) and Julio Piumato (General Secretary of the Union of Judicial Employees of the Nation).
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
