2018 Parity Law and Its Unmet 36% Quota — Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau's Parliament unanimously passed a Parity Law on 2 August 2018, setting a minimum 36% quota for women's representation on candidate lists for legislative and local elections, as well as in appointments to key decision-making positions.

The law was intended to take effect in time for the elections then scheduled later in 2018, but implementation has consistently fallen short of its own target. In the March 2019 legislative election, women won 14 of roughly 102 seats (13.7%). In the June 2023 election, held under the same 36% quota law, women's representation fell further, to 10 seats (9.8%) — a decline rather than progress, according to IPU Parline and International IDEA's Democracy Tracker.

Independent election monitors attribute the shortfall to the law's lack of a compliance or sanctions mechanism: unlike Cabo Verde's funding-conditionality model, Guinea-Bissau's law sets a target without consequences for parties that ignore it. The country's recurrent political instability — the UN Security Council has repeatedly warned that credible elections are critical to Guinea-Bissau's fragile political progress — further complicates consistent enforcement.

Guinea-Bissau's case is included here as a cautionary example: a legally mandated quota, without an enforcement mechanism or party-list sanctions, was not sufficient to raise — and in this instance coincided with a decline in — women's parliamentary representation.

Read the full analysis: https://uniogbis.unmissions.org/en/news/guinea-bissau-parliament-passes-law-ensure-gender-balanced-political-representation