Good practice

La cuota constitucional de Irak para mujeres en el Consejo de Representantes

Desde 2005, la Constitución de Irak reserva al menos el 25% de los 329 escaños del Consejo de Representantes para mujeres. En 2021, las mujeres ganaron 95 escaños (28,9%), 57 de ellos fuera de la cuota, aunque esto no se ha traducido en poder político real.

28.9%

Escaños de mujeres en el Consejo de Representantes, 2021 (Oct 2021)

Mujeres elegidas fuera del mecanismo de cuotas, 2021 (2021)

Puestos ministeriales ocupados por mujeres (2005-2021)

La cuota constitucional de Irak para mujeres en el Consejo de Representantes

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq / Council of Representatives
Period: 2005–present
Keywords: politics, elections, governance, quotas, women's political participation

Context

La constitución iraquí de 2005 y la Ley Electoral reservan al menos el 25% de los 329 escaños del Consejo de Representantes para mujeres, completando las listas de partidos con las candidatas mejor situadas cuando es necesario para alcanzar el umbral.

Results

En las elecciones de octubre de 2021, las mujeres obtuvieron 95 escaños (28,9%), el máximo histórico en Iraq, con 57 elegidas directamente y no mediante el mecanismo de cuotas; la investigación del LSE Middle East Centre, basada en entrevistas a diputadas y a la sociedad civil, concluyó que estas ganancias descriptivas no se tradujeron en poder sustantivo, ya que las mujeres ocuparon solo 19 puestos ministeriales entre 2005 y 2021.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-05
Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq / Council of Representatives — accessed 2026-07-05
UNAMI: Overcoming obstacles, women shone in 2021 elections — accessed 2026-07-05
LSE Middle East Centre: From the House to the Fire — accessed 2026-07-05

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 74/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 37% in this catalogue (719 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

Quota-based electoral gender mechanisms are widely replicated legal designs across the region and beyond, but the evidence here is Iraq-specific rather than showing demonstrated cross-country replication of this exact scheme.

Impact on gender equality1/1

Women's representation rose from a 25% quota floor to 28.9% actual representation (95 of 329 seats) in 2021, a documented descriptive-representation gain per UNAMI.

Effectiveness1/1

The mechanism exceeded its own target, with 57 of the 95 elected women winning competitive seats outside the reserved quota allocation across 16 governorates.

Efficiency0/1

No cost or resource-efficiency data for administering the quota was found in the sources reviewed.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

Outcomes are evaluated both quantitatively (UNAMI election data) and qualitatively (LSE Middle East Centre interview-based research, 2024).

Sustainability1/1

The quota has been constitutionally embedded and applied continuously across multiple election cycles since 2005.

Achievement / evidence1/1

The 2021 result (95 seats, 28.9%) is Iraq's highest women's parliamentary representation to date, per UNAMI.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding0/1

LSE research finds women are concentrated in low-power ministries (19 posts 2005–2021, one sovereign ministry) and steered into a limited-mandate committee, indicating the quota has not driven broader gender mainstreaming.

Curator validation1/1

Verified against two independent sources on different domains: UNAMI (iraq.un.org) and LSE Middle East Centre (blogs.lse.ac.uk).

Cite this

Evidoria. La cuota constitucional de Irak para mujeres en el Consejo de Representantes. Persistent ID: ba5e5f4e-1150-4834-b7ce-8c875b0761ca.

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