The Praxis of Gender Responsive Lawmaking in Ethiopia: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

The law plays an important role in shaping the norms, values, behaviors, actions and practices of the state and its citizens. This is, inter alia, observed in the realm of setting gender roles and expectations. Based on the extent to which the law addresses gender issues, it can be categorized as gender regressive, gender blind, gender neutral, or gender responsive. This article underlines the normative role of the law in achieving gender equality by examining the practice of gender responsive legislation in Ethiopia. It also discusses the approaches, techniques, tools and methods of gender responsive legislative drafting. For the purpose of conducting this research, reviews of laws, expert interviews and literature review have been undertaken. The finding of the research demonstrates that there is a strong legislative and institutional backing to integrate gender in the legislative drafting process and there are promising practices to integrate gender in the legislative drafting process. However, capacity gaps, lack of accountability mechanisms and gaps in the participation of women and women’s organizations in the legislative drafting process have resulted in irregular and inconsistent practices in adopting a gender responsive legislative drafting process. There is thus a need for regularized and institutionalized approach to ensure that laws contribute toward gender equality in Ethiopia.