[NYTr] Bolivia - Woman elected officials fight harassment

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

IPS - Sep 13, 2007 via Steven Robinson
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39256

BOLIVIA: Women Councillors Fight Harassment

By Franz Chavez

La Paz  - Women town councillors in Bolivia are pressing for a law to
protect them from discrimination and political harassment on the part of
their male colleagues, whom they accuse of intimidation and even death
threats, especially in rural areas.

"They locked me in a room, hit me and ordered me at gunpoint to sign a
letter of resignation," says one of 168 testimonies collected between
2000 and 2007 by the Bolivian Association of Women Councillors
(ACOBOL), which works for the right of women to hold public office.

There are 327 town councils in Bolivia. The country's electoral laws
require 30 percent of each political party's candidates to be women,
and for citizen groups the proportion required is 50 percent.

But this affirmative action does not extend to executive positions.
Only 14 percent of mayors are women, ACOBOL manager Marma Eugenia Rojas
told IPS.

A draft law against harassment and gender violence in politics "makes
Bolivia a leader among Latin American countries," where complaints are
frequent but no penalties are provided by law, said Rojas.

The draft law is presently being debated in the Chamber of Deputies, and
will go from there to the Senate. Meanwhile, sociologist and researcher
Fidel Rojas continues to collect testimonies from women councillors
forced to leave their elected positions because they were perceived as
a threat to the mayors' plans.

Women cannot achieve a balance of power "because men don't like to have
their actions checked up on," said Fidel Rojas.

According to another testimony compiled by ACOBOL, in the town of
Irupana, councillor Martina Barra reported that the president of the
council, Javier Salgueiro, discriminated against her because she is
Afro-Bolivian.

The statements tell of the widespread practice of making women
candidates sign a blank sheet of paper. If they are elected, the other
councillors write a resignation letter on the page and send it to the
electoral authorities.

Women who resist are subjected to direct pressure, as are their
families, and are even threatened with a beating by residents of rural
municipalities controlled by hostile councillors, said the ACOBOL
manager.

One of the cases tells the story of Mayor Juana Quispe, of the governing
Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), who was elected in 2004 in the
municipality of Chimori, in the tropical zone of the department
(province) of Cochabamba, with 59 percent of the vote.

Under the psychological pressure of threats to her life and of burning
down her home, Quispe handed in her resignation as mayor. Although the
provincial electoral court refused to accept her resignation, Quispe
ultimately gave in to harassment from her political colleagues and
asked for an indefinite leave of absence.

Substitute councillor Valerio Felipe took office as mayor with the
backing of four MAS legislators in this coca-growing area, where
President Evo Morales first built up his leadership.

In the 2004 municipal elections, 337 women were elected as councillors,
but only four percent of these succeeded in becoming mayors, Marma
Eugenia Rojas said. To become a mayor, one must first be a councillor.

Male dominance turns men into "absolute masters" in rural indigenous
areas and confines women to domestic chores, or at most to leading
groups of homemakers or informal trade organisations, Fidel Rojas told
IPS.

The draft law is an attempt to fill a legal vacuum by identifying
harassment and violent behaviour as punishable offences and crimes. It
also extends protection to all women elected to positions in municipal,
provincial or national governments.

According to the draft law tabled for discussion, political gender
harassment is defined as "an act or series of acts committed by an
individual or group themselves, or through third parties, against a
woman or her family, with the intent of preventing and/or inducing an
action or omission in the fulfilment of her functions, rights or
duties, by exerting pressure through persecution, vexation or threats
of any nature."

Political gender violence is described as "aggressive actions and/or
behaviour by an individual or group themselves, or through third
parties, that cause physical, psychological or sexual harm to a woman
exercising political representation, and/or her family, with the intent
of preventing and restricting her exercise of her position or inducing
her to make decisions against her will, her principles and the law."

The penalties proposed include criminal prosecution, application of the
regulations of the state institution where the offence has been
committed, and application of the laws regulating political parties,
civil organizations and indigenous peoples. (END/2007)