The National Council of Justice (CNJ) unanimously approved a normative act that requires gender parity – that is, the same number of men and women – in the examining committees and benches of all public competitions for the position of judge in Brazil. The decision was taken last Tuesday (28).
Another approved change was the mandatory inclusion of questions about human rights in all public tenders of Justice. Such an obligation existed only in the case of military justice.
Rapporteur on the topic, counselor Salise Monteiro Sanchotene highlighted that the percentage of female presence in the Judiciary has been stagnant since 2019, at the level of 38%. “The glass ceiling exists in the judiciary and we have also seen a decrease in the number of female judges”, she said.
Parity is close only in the Labor Court, where women represent 49% of the judiciary. In the first instance, they are 40%, while in the others, only 25% are judges or ministers. Since 2018, the CNJ has instituted the National Policy to Encourage Female Participation in the Judiciary.
During the vote on parity in newsstands, the councilor also highlighted the publication of a new CNJ’s Repository of Women Lawyerswhich compiles the curriculum of 500 women specialists in various legal subjects – including lawyers, judges, public defenders, members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and other operators of law.
According to Sanchotene, the tool helps in locating “women who can be mentioned in the votes, have participation included in public tenders and tables at legal events”.
