Yes ok Eduardo Montealegre resigned in October Ministry of Justicethe Administrative Court of Cundinamarca said that her appointment violated the gender quota in President Gustavo Petro’s cabinet.
The lawsuit requested the annulment of Decree 0647 of June 13, 2025, by which the President of the Republic appointed Montealegre Lynett as minister, considering that said act was issued in violation of constitutional and legal norms.
Eduardo Montealege, former Minister of Justice. Photo:ELTIEMPO.
In their defense, the Government and the entities linked to the process argued that, on the date of the appointment, there was no specific regulation of the positions to which Law 581 would apply, as ordered by paragraph 2 of its article 4. However, the Court rejected that thesis. The Chamber indicated that said regulation was not necessary to require compliance with the female quota in ministerial appointments and that the minimum percentage should be applied directly to the 19 existing ministries.
“The evidentiary material in the accumulated files, in accordance with the decrees appointing ministers, allows us to conclude that, on the date of issuance of the requested decree, 9 women were appointed to the position of minister, which reaches a percentage of 47.36%, that is, below the minimum of 50% required,” held the Court. And he added that this non-compliance occurs “regardless of whether the president has subsequently complied with the rule.”
The Court recalled that, although at an initial stage of the process the provisional suspension of the decree was denied due to lack of evidence, the subsequent analysis of the file made it possible to establish that the act of appointment did contradict the rule established by law. “The above argument is sufficient to access the claims of the lawsuit,” the decision indicated.
Faced with the Government’s position, which insisted that the application of the standard should be gradual and evaluated globally, The Court was emphatic in pointing out that the demand for parity cannot be postponed indefinitely.
He recalled that both Law 581 and the constitutionality ruling that endorsed it date back to 2000 and that more than 24 years have passed since then. Furthermore, he stressed that the President of the Republic has full constitutional freedom to appoint and remove ministers, which allows him to comply with the gender quota without affecting acquired rights.
The ruling also warned that, according to the evidence, on three occasions the Government accepted the resignation of women who held ministerial portfolios and replaced them with men, which directly affected the failure to comply with the percentage required by law. In this context, the Chamber distorted the Ministry of Justice’s statement according to which the cabinet “approached” the ideal of parity. “It is not that the appointments are as close as possible to 50%, but rather that this categorically constitutes the minimum percentage to be filled,” the Court specified.
Justice Editorial
