” GENDER EQUALITY IS NOT A WOMAN ISSUE ,ITS A HUMAN ISSUE , IT AFFECTS US ALL”

INTRODUCTION:

The term “Gender equality” reminds the world that both men and women must be treated equally, and that gives us the idea of how the scenario has changed the minds of the people that equality in gender has become a subject matter to fight for the right of equality. Past decades, clearly explains us that women in each field has been fighting to get their right to be treated equally to men. The one thing astound us is that no men has fought for his equality against any women. The international arbitration is one example of many barriers faced by women in the workplace. The women arbitrators are given less opportunities due to the long hours at office or frequent international travel or taking care of families which blindly projects that women are incapable of being an arbitrator. These kind of unconscious bias put women in the position where opportunities knocks less in their doorstep. As per, the data by solicitors regulation authority in 2017 female arbitrators currently hovers around 20% before International Arbitration Institutions when compared with other legal profession.

REASONS:

There are many reasons for the lack of opportunities such as same arbitrators are chosen again and again creating barriers to new entrants. There may be a lack of visibility around potential female arbitrators where more men arbitrators are chosen by the parties as they desire to have an experienced arbitrator excluding equally able female candidates to the cases. Apparent discrimination and unconscious bias is the only component to the gender inequality in international arbitration.

MEASURES TAKEN:

The commencement of equal representation in arbitration pledge on 18^th May of 2016 in London has created a historic moment in international arbitration. The explication of the pledge is that to increase the number of female arbitrators on an equal opportunity basis in the international disputes. To create an equal opportunity there were some measures taken after the pledge like publication of gender statistics for appointments of women arbitrators and even the ideas of quota was brought into the discussions but it will ultimately lead to improving the statistics but not the motto of equal opportunity and so, the idea wasn’t opted. There are several networks to establish the gender diversity, one of the important network is that ARBITRAL WOMEN, which is a global network of women in International Dispute Resolution with the objective to improve the female arbitrators in International Dispute Resolution. This network was established in 1993 and has thousands of members across the world. It is also well known that arbitral tribunals is male dominated where in the year of 2014, we could see an increase of 11.7% of arbitrators were women in LCI (LONDON COURT OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION). The AMINZ (ARBITRATOR’S AND MEDIATOR’S INSTITUTE OF NEW ZEALAND) has also created a gender diversity pledge where it ensures that fair representation of women in governing bodies, conference panels and committees. Likewise, in 2004 The Law Council of Australia has initiated a model equal opportunity briefing policy for women in legal profession, later it was revised To the Law Council of Australia introducing equitable briefing policy it uplift women.

STATISTICS AFTER PLEDGE:

The percentage of female arbitrators after the pledge shows that  International Chamber Of Commerce (ICC) cases rose from 10.4% in 2015 to 18% in 2018 , International Centre For Dispute Resolution (ICDR) from 10% in 2015 to 27% in 2018 ,  LCIA fell by 1% in 2018 .likewise , even Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) ,Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), Vienna International Arbitration Centre (VIAC) And  Stockholm Chamber Of Commerce (SCC)  as indicated an increase in the percentages . In 2017 International Chamber Of Commerce (ICC) has appointed 249 arbitrators out of 1488 after supporting the pledge to equal representation in 2016 to remove gender inequalities. The ICC’S .Young Arbitrators Forum has 38 women and 34c men in its panel of representatives which denotes a partial increase in appointment of female candidates.

CONCLUSION:

Arbitration is a method where the parties select their own arbitrators, due to this talented candidates aren’t given the opportunity and there is no regulation to the arbitral institutions to promote gender diversity. If the gender inequality is removed the quality of arbitration community is increased and different approaches is brought into the field. Publication of statistics can bring a change in the view of people of an imperceptive discrimination.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Clients must broadly think while appointing arbitrators eliminating gender inequality.
• Proper regulation must be brought into the arbitral institutions for promoting gender equality.
• In arbitration, if multi-arbitral panel is adopted women arbitrators must be included.
• Any bias in the gender, must amount to penalty in the arbitration sector.
• Parties appointing arbitrators must adopt the strategy of appointing arbitrators based on their resume and removing the gender on it, so there is a clear visibility and transparency in appointments.