6 October 2008

Over the last couple of decades there was a clear trend of women taking a more active role in a number of important professional and socio-political areas in the UNECE region. This tendency was apparent also across the judiciary system, and particularly in regard of judges, as the chart attests.

During 1995-2006, the proportion of women among the judges continued its steady rise in the majority of the UNECE countries. By the end of this period, women accounted for more than 50 per cent of all judges in nearly half the countries depicted in the chart. Their proportion now exceeds 70 per cent in Hungary, Latvia, and Slovenia. In fact, the highest proportion of women judges is observed in the east and central European countries, where already in 1995 women accounted for a sizeable share. At the other end of the scale, in spite of a rising share, in the United Kingdom, Armenia and Ireland women judges barely account for 20 per cent of the total.

Source:UNECE Gender Statistics Database (www.unece.org/stats/data)

* Data refer to 2004 instead of 2006.