Libya's Women's Parliamentary Quota Rollback — From 30% to 16% (Law No. 2 of 2021)

In the run-up to Libya's planned December 2021 elections, the House of Representatives adopted Law No. 2 of 2021 (5 October 2021), the electoral law governing the 200-seat chamber. Where earlier post-revolution frameworks and the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement had targeted a 30% quota for women, the new law reserved only 32 of 200 seats (16%) for women — roughly half the earlier target.
Libyan women's organisations and activists, including social counsellor Kheiria Ferej El-Fergiani and Civic Democratic Party member Salwa Saleh, publicly criticised the reduction as discriminatory given that women make up over half of Libya's population. Wikipedia's country statistics record women's actual parliamentary presence at 14% in 2021 — below even the reduced quota.
The planned December 2021 elections were themselves postponed indefinitely amid disputes over the electoral framework, so the lower quota was never tested at the ballot box. Parallel UN Women-backed efforts secured a 30% quota commitment for the Government of National Unity's own appointments and the appointment of five women ministers, including Libya's first woman foreign minister, Najla el-Mangoush — showing gains were still possible in appointed roles even as the elected-chamber quota regressed.

Read the full analysis: https://arabstates.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/07/womens-political-participation-in-libya-a-review-of-electoral-legislation-to-date-2023