On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021, the IBA launched an ambitious, first-of-its-kind, nine-year global project aimed at uncovering the root causes of gender parity issues at the highest levels of the legal profession. The goal is to identify whether diversity initiatives introduced to address this disparity are making any impact and to provide practical conclusions and guidance to the profession. Titled ‘50/50 by 2030’ in reference to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No 5 on gender equality, the project has received support from the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation.The project's primary aim is to analyze the statistical disparity between males and females at senior levels in the legal profession on a global scale. Despite females making up the majority of law students and graduates worldwide, their representation at senior levels across all legal sectors remains significantly lower than that of their male counterparts. The longitudinal study seeks to understand and address this gap, providing insights and recommendations to the global legal profession. Moreover, the findings and suggestions may also be relevant in tackling gender disparity in other professional service industries.To achieve its objectives, the IBA is gathering data from four sectors of the legal profession across various case study jurisdictions: private practice (including the bar in bifurcated jurisdictions), in-house, public sector, and the judiciary. The scope of this study is more extensive than previous research, which primarily focused on women in commercial law firms and their progression to equity partner level. Instead, this study aims to explore more broadly what success means for women in the global profession.The IBA's investigation spans 16 countries and will continue until 2030. This timeframe allows for tracking the performance of gender initiatives adopted by the profession to assess whether they have had any significant impact on the representation of women in senior legal positions.As of May 2023, the IBA has published four reports covering England & Wales, Uganda, Spain, Nigeria, and South Africa. The report for South Korea is expected to be released in the second half of this year.(Attached files can be found below.)?
Statement - Hong Kong - July 2023.pdf
