56% of the Supreme Constitutional Court are women

In Cyprus today, women Judges make up 56% of Supreme Constitutional Court Judges, 50% of District Judges, 36% of Appeal Judges and 43% of Supreme Court Judges, said Katerina Stamatiou, President of the Supreme Court.

In her opening speech at the 2nd annual "Women in Law" conference, organized in Larnaca by the Pan-Cypriot Bar Association, Ms. Stamatiou stated, among other things, that "democracy today, as a state, mainly means that state organization, which forces the state to guarantee the fundamental rights of man. All human rights, political, individual and social without, of course, gender or other discrimination".

He added that "this legal equality of the two sexes, as we know it well today and is forever established in international, European and national Law, is completely absent from the legal order of the once civilized world. With the obvious aim of preventing any unfavorable discrimination between the sexes, special national mechanisms were adopted in the Republic of Cyprus".

He also noted that "with the enactment of the Combating Racial and Certain Other Discrimination (Commissioner) Law, the Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights has the authority to intervene in relation to discrimination, and which is observed in the public or private sector, in the areas of employment, work, vocational training, education, social protection, social security and health care and access to goods and services'.

At the same time, Ms. continued. Stamatiou, "the Commissioner for Gender Equality, whose institutionalization is expected to be implemented soon, has broad powers and duties, with the aim of promoting equality between men and women and eliminating any kind of discrimination against women. Through the Gender Equality Commissioner of the launched National Action Plans, the consolidation of a gender culture is promoted, on the one hand in the state machine and on the other in society as a whole".

He also stated that "the Department of Human Rights, Anti-Criminal Penal Policy and Combating Gender-Based Violence of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order, strengthens the entire framework for promoting and respecting human rights, implementing anti-criminal and penal policy and combating gender-based violence."

Today, the President of the Supreme Court said "in the judiciary of Cyprus, women Judges make up 50% of District Judges, 36% of Appeals, 43% of Supreme Court Judges and 56% of Supreme Constitutional Court Judges" .

The Environment Commissioner Antonia Theodosiou presented the topic "In search of environmental justice: Third pillar of the Aarhus Convention", in the section of the Conference entitled "Environment, Society, Corporate Governance & Sustainable Development Goals (ESG & SDGs)".

In her presentation Ms. Theodosiou referred, in general, to the Aarhus Convention of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which is the leading agreement on issues of environmental democracy. After its ratification by 47 countries until 2023, the right was given to Civil Society for access to information, for effective participation in decision-making, as well as for access to justice on environmental issues.

He added that "Cyprus signed the Convention in 1998 and ratified it in 2003. Twenty-one years later, the Convention has had a positive impact on environmental governance and institutional adherence to the first two pillars of the Convention – access to information and participation in decision-making".

During her presentation Ms. Theodosiou, he dealt in particular with the third pillar, "that of civil society's access to justice for violations concerning the environment and consequently the quality of life".

In particular, he referred to "what is in force in relation to the legal regime in the Republic, whether the Law has been adapted based on what derives from the Convention, to the international and EU obligations of our country and whether citizens actually have access to justice in Cypriot legal instruments ».

In his own greeting, the President of the Pancypriot Bar Association, Michalis Vorkas, stated that "the conference has become an institution, which through the highlighting of important issues offers training and specialized knowledge and at the same time raises concerns through the presentation of data at the national and European level for modern challenges. The PDS is organizing this particular conference following the standards of the respective Vienna, International Bar Association and Council of European Bar Associations (CCBE) organizations with a focus on promoting women's empowerment, connection, information and development.

He added that "the ultimate goal of the conference is the effort to consolidate in Cyprus a specialized scientific step, as it already exists in other countries, that promotes issues that touch on all subjects, related to our own field or connected to it. In the ever-changing context in which we lawyers are called upon to adapt, a difficulty for all of us is to stay up-to-date and evolve simultaneously in all areas.

The lawyers, he continued, "should be in a balanced dialectical relationship, since they are the ones who see the evolution of the law every day with all the changes that arise overall and more broadly. The empowerment of women is a goal that concerns us all", he said and noted that "continuous actions and interventions are needed, the effectiveness of which should be subject to evaluation, while the promotion of good practices and positive examples is necessary".

In his greeting, Mr. Vorkas also referred to the issues of equality and said that "the current Board of Directors of the Pancypriot Bar Association, upon assuming its duties, has proceeded with the establishment of the Equality Committee in order to focus on the relevant issues".

After the greetings, distinguished speakers from Cyprus and abroad developed contemporary themes regarding the empowerment of women, the upgrading of skills, the strengthening of their participation in positions of responsibility and decision-makers, the challenges they face in the modern labor market, particularly in the field of the legal profession.

Source: KYPE