On Chilean gender parity constitution

OVER the last weekend, Chileans went to the polls to elect an Assembly of constitution-writers that would be working to herald the first gender-parity Constitution in the world. Or to be more precise, history was already made with the Chileans resolving to have ‘the world’s most diverse constitutional convention … (which would) … be (of) gender parity, since half of the candidates and half of the elected delegates must be women.’ Antonia Orellana calls it ‘a game-changing moment, like when women won the right to vote,” given that this has never been realized anywhere else in the world. The closest to it was Tunisia’s 2011 constitutional convention, held in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, which used gender parity rules for candidates, but women candidates eventually won only one-quarter of the assembly’s seats. But in Chile, the agreement was that ‘women would comprise half the candidates and half the victors,’ to ensure that half the members of the Assembly would be women, thus achieving the rare signal of ushering the world into the first constitutional convention with gender parity, and significantly altering the traditional constitutional-making scenarios, where, according to Nanako Tamaru, ‘the leading parties write a constitution that preserves the most power for themselves.’

Our celebration of the achievement of this remarkable signpost by the Chileans would and should sensitise us to the fact that it did not come easy or from the blues. It was rather the culmination and end result of the persistent struggle of the Chilean people, particularly the women, against the deep inequality in the country.  Whereas the 2019 nationwide protests were triggered by opposition to a hike in public transportation fares, it was a reflection of the deepseated anger of the people against persistently high inequality, which one Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report says manifests in ‘53 percent of households (in the country) classed as economically vulnerable and the poorest 20 percent of households earning a mere 5.1 percent of the income.’ The protesters would therefore rather call for fundamental social, economic and political change, insisting on the making of a new Constitution while arguing that the existing Constitution, enacted under the dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, was part of the structures blocking equitable progress and turning Chile into ‘one of the most unequal among advanced economies.’

They criticised the existing constitution for its neoliberal foundations, which they said prioritized the privatization of public goods at the expense of economic equality and social inclusion. And they were eager to call for a new Constitution that would allow for the dismantling of the existing exclusive systems by incorporating clauses that guarantee access to well-funded public services from health care and education to water.  In particular, the protesters were not going to be perturbed or dissuaded by government’s brutal reaction leading to the death of more than 36 of them. Popular anger continued to flare on the streets despite the government’s draconian reaction in what came to be known as the estallido (awakening). Protesters faced police brutality, but kept returning to the streets week after week, to force the elites to reckon with their demands for deeper change. When it was clear that large proportions of the population would not compromise on the demand for substantive change, the government of President Sebastian Pinera capitulated and acceded to the demand to have a new constitution written.

Significantly, during the protests, women were among the most fervent advocates of a constitutional rewrite to enshrine equal rights and greater public participation. For the women, although Chile’s current constitution guarantees equality or non-discrimination based on sex, it does not ensure women’s rights to equality in marriage and life. And one of the things women asked for and insisted on with their adopted slogan Nunca más sin nosotra (Never again without us) in the campaign for a constitutional rewrite was gender parity. This demand for commitment to political inclusion was necessary to strengthen Chile’s democracy and to meet the long-neglected needs of its most vulnerable citizens, even as it would also represent the first step toward equal access to positions of power and decision-making processes for women.

With the acceptance of the gender parity foundation for the constitutional rewrite exercise and with seats reserved in the Assembly for indigenous peoples and people with disabilities, Chile is reflecting international norms that speak to the importance of diverse legislatures. Chile is showing the way that voters acceptance of any new Constitution has to be hinged on the diversity of those writing it, thus raising the global standard for representative democracy. And for the women, the demand for gender parity in the Constitution rewrite is not just a niche demand as it represents a qualitative leap forward for the society, given that where we have ‘seen more women and more diverse representation, it addresses the broader issues around human rights, around justice.’ The thinking here, according to Amaya Alvez, ‘is about parity of power rather than a binary interpretation of men or women,’ such that power in the society could be moderated and balanced in order to be used for the greater good of the society. Going forward, the expectation is that this gender-parity template would be more like using the anchor of feminism and gender equality to open up democracy, such that there would now be a growing recognition of the full range of rights necessary to securing gender equality such as the right to women’s bodily autonomy and freedom from violence, and all other people’s rights.

This way, the new constitution would be one conscious of and recognising the full rights of peoples and communities and individuals, while frowning on exclusion and marginalization, with the women sure to have diverse reproductive and sexual rights – and not only health rights considered under the male perspective. Overall, Chile is teaching the world, in the words of Jennifer M. Piscopo, that ‘the more decision-making bodies look like those whom they purport to represent, the more legitimate they appear in the eyes of citizens—and perhaps the less prone to … protests over injustice and exclusion …’ Let us hope that the world is listening and learning the right lessons from Chile and its courageous women.

• Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

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