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.