Role of Gulf Women in Arbitration.

As an integral part of the Qatari society
women are bestowed great consideration in Qatar. According to the constitution all
persons are equal regardless of their sex, religion, language, or race. The
constitution also warranted the principle of equality between all citizens in
public rights and duties. Therefore, no provision in law prohibits women from
sitting as arbitrators.

The Civil and Commercial Procedures Code laid
general requirements with respect to appointing arbitrators without any
discrimination between men and women, article 193 of which stipulates: “An
arbitrator may not be a minor, bankrupt, legally incapacitated person or a
person deprived of his civil rights due to a criminal offence unless he has
been rehabilitated.  If there is more than one arbitrator, the number
shall, at all times, be an odd number, otherwise the arbitration shall be void.
Subject to the provisions of special laws, arbitrators shall be appointed based
on the arbitration agreement or an independent document”.

The new draft Arbitration Law tackled the requirements
to qualify as an arbitrator in more details, article 11 of which confined the
appointment of arbitrators to those certified and listed in the national
registry of arbitrators in the ministry. It also stipulates that the arbitrator
cannot be a minor, under guardianship, have been deprived of his civil rights
by reason of a judgment against him for a felony or misdemeanor contrary to
honesty or due to a declaration of his bankruptcy; even if he was rehabilitated.
Subject to the aforementioned requirements the second paragraph of the same
article does not require the arbitrator to be of a given nationality, unless
otherwise agreed upon between the parties or provided for by law.

The new draft Arbitration Law indicated the
duties of an arbitrator in more details. It required the arbitrator’s
acceptance of his mission to be in writing. An arbitrator must be impartial,
adhere to the principle of equality between the parties to ensure due process,
and evade unnecessary delay or expenses in order to ensure an expedite and just
mean to settle disputes, otherwise he must disclose any changes to the
aforementioned.

Accordingly, the new draft Arbitration Law is
not different than its predecessor in relation to equality between men and
women when appointing arbitrators, each is entitled to be appointed subject to
the fulfillment of the conditions set by the legislation without any
discrimination.

Whereas Qatar International Center for
Conciliation and Arbitration rules only required an arbitrator to be impartial,
independent, and of a nationality other than the nationalities of the parties
in case they are not of a common nationality. With no much difference Qatar
Financial Center applies the same rules in this regard since it dictates
impartiality and independence of arbitrators and permits determination of their
required qualifications by the parties.

Legislations of the GCC Countries conform to
Qatar legislation with respect to requirements to qualify as an arbitrator,
they all have set general rules and requirements for any natural person to qualify
as an arbitrator without any discrimination between men and women.

Though Arbitration has witnessed notable
developments and growth in Qatar and the GCC countries, and their legislations impose
no restrictions on women’s appointment as arbitrators, the Gulf women
participation is still very insignificant in relation to Arbitration. We rarely
read or hear about an appointment of a woman from the Gulf region as an
arbitrator on a local, regional, or international level.

Despite the growing number of female
candidates in Law Schools in the GCC Countries and the good presence of women
in the legal arena as lawyers, consultants, judges, or experts, Arbitration has not
been embarked upon by the Gulf women yet. Likewise, the position of women
regarding actual participation in arbitral proceedings on an international
scale is not significantly different from the position of Gulf women.

One statistic
indicates that the number of arbitrators appointed in arbitral proceedings that
took place at the ICC in Paris was 766 only 22 of them were women representing
3% and 744 of which were men representing the remaining 97%. While the number
of female arbitrators appointed in arbitral proceedings that took place at the
LCIA in London in 1998 was only 66 representing 1.5% of the total number.

In 2011 318
arbitrators were appointed at the ICC, 36 of which were women representing only
11.32%. These percentages reflect the insignificant participation of women in
Arbitration on an international scale.

Hence, we may
conclude that the minor participation of women in Arbitration is a global phenomenon.
The fact that the Arbitration market is within the hands of few practitioners
who are mostly men could also be an obstacle for women to embark upon Arbitration.
In addition to that there is lack of a Gulf female role model in the
Arbitration field which could encourage new female generations to engage in
Arbitration. Big number of women start their careers in law, however very few
reach high levels in the legal field, which is a phenomenon called “pipeline
leak”.

Among the proposed
solutions to reinforce Gulf women participation in the Arbitration process is
to conduct training courses and workshops for female law schools graduates in
all topics of Arbitration in both languages; Arabic and English. In addition,
Arbitration institutions should endorse their lists of arbitrators with female
ones. Law firms should endorse their female associates to engage in Arbitral
proceedings. Finally, Gulf women may convene in professional or virtual
associations – such as the arbitralwomen.org website – to exchange experiences
and encourage women to embark their professional lives as arbitrators.