Committee: Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)

Topic: Violence against women in politics

Country: Colombia
Delegate’s name: Thais Ubillus

In Colombia lies a problematic landscape where every citizen faces various types of violence in
the day-to-day. From news reporting high cases of corruption, crimes, and forced displacement
to gender-based murders and harassment. At the core of the issue, women pose a vulnerable
figure since they are victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, and cyberbullying, among
others. In addition, women deal with a variety of obstacles regarding their sex, which affects
their professional and emotional development. Concerning the political arena, in 2022 women
hold 29.6% of the seats in the upper house and 28.9% in the lower, according to the IPU (2023).
Despite it being a great step forward in promoting equality, Colombia is still far away from
providing women with an equal political environment without putting their lives at risk.
“Carolina Mosquera, researcher at feminist organisation Sisma Mujer, said women are being
targeted both for running as candidates and for disturbing the patriarchal order” (The Guardian,
2019). Furthermore, the threats women experience when trying to enter politics influence their
participation since there is no guarantee of their security. As a result, in 2011 the Colombian
legislature approved a law aimed at promoting equal participation of women in politics through
the adoption of a quota law that orders that at least 30% of political parties should be occupied
by women. Moreover, the National Development Plan 2018-22 includes a chapter on women’s
rights based on three dimensions: economic, political and physical integrity, including violence
against women, (OCD Library, 2023).

On the other hand, international actions have also been taken to foster gender equality. In 1979,
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, which was signed by Colombia, thus
sanctions can be taken to punish aggressors. Also, since 2010 NIMD has worked in Colombia in
the strengthening of the democratic capacities and cooperation between national authorities and
political parties, and the promotion of women, young people, and other underrepresented groups
in politics. According to NIMD (s,f). In 2020, this organization established the Observatory on
Violence Against Women in Politics that monitors and analyzes violence against women in the
field of politics in Colombia, which helps identify persisting gaps and challenges and serves as a
baseline for measuring progress; not to mention its capability of raising awareness within an
issue that is often underestimated and overlooked. This last initiative has had a great impact on
eliminating violence against women in the political arena since as specified by the NIMD
(2022) “three MPs are currently presenting bills on the prevention, protection, and response to
violence against women in politics.”

However, although there is a legal framework to protect women, monitoring its effective
implementation is still challenging, especially at a local level. Therefore, it is urgent to address
this problem with an intersectoral and international approach but to be extremely cautious about
guaranteeing the execution of the laws to protect women. In addition, since this form of
violence is based on a system where men occupy the power spaces, it is substantial to consider
the social factors that contribute to discrimination against women, which can be the institutions
and the media that perpetrate the women's status that says that she belongs to the domestic
activities and not the public spaces. Consequently, the solutions should aim to regulate the
actions of these characters. Moreover, to guarantee the fulfillment of international measures, it
is possible to incentivize them by adding customs duty to the products and services of the
countries that do not obey the pacts.
Bibliography
The Guardian. (2019). 'Based in hatred': violence against women standing in Colombia's
elections. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/oct/01/based-in-hatred-
violence-against-women-colombia-elections
Inter-Parliamentary Union [IPU]. (2023). History is made in Colombia with gains in diversity
led by feminist movements. https://www.ipu.org/news/case-studies/2023-02/history-made-in-
colombia-with-gains-in-diversity-led-feminist-movements
Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy. (s,f). What we do.
https://nimd.org/programmes/colombia/
Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy. (2022). COLOMBIA’S OBSERVATORY ON
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN POLITICS. https://nimd.org/colombias-observatory-on-
violence-against-women-in-politics/