Constitution Review Commission has recommended constitutional provisions requiring the State to take affirmative measures to address the historical and continuing underrepresentation of women in Parliament.
The Commission said gender equity remained a persistent challenge, noting in its report that women’s representation in Parliament peaked at about 20 per cent in 2018 and has since declined. Electoral Commission records similarly show women held six of the 55 parliamentary seats in 2023, or 10.9 per cent.
The report said women were also noticeably underrepresented during the Commission’s consultations, with men often dominating discussions.
Against that background, the Commission recommends that the Constitution require Parliament to legislate measures aimed at achieving the “effective and equitable representation of women” in elected office.
Those measures could include reserved seats for women, electoral quotas, political party quotas or other mechanisms designed to achieve gender-balanced representation.
The Commission also considered measures involving party lists that alternate between female and male candidates. However, the report argues that such arrangements would apply only to party-list seats and therefore would not, on their own, address the broader representation issue.
It said submissions from organisations and individuals called for greater gender equity as part of broader leadership diversity, while the Bose Levu Vakaturaga submission also identified women’s representation in Parliament and local government as an issue requiring attention.
The Commission linked the proposal to its broader recommendation for a Mixed Member Proportional electoral system and its stated objective of increasing representation across Fiji’s age, gender, ethnic, geographic and cultural diversity.
The recommendations have not been adopted. Cabinet has said tabling the Commission’s report does not amount to acceptance of all its recommendations, which remain subject to further consideration and the constitutional process.
