Call for Good Practices – Discrimination in Political & Public Life

In 2012, the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in law and in
practice intends to research, as a priority, the issue of discrimination
against women in law and in practice in public and political life.

Within this broad area of research, the Working Group will pay particular
attention to efforts aimed at eliminating such discrimination undertaken in
times of political transition, particularly transitions which involve
fundamental changes of political regime and/or of the legal system.

The Working Group notes that situations of political transition provide a
unique opportunity to address women’s participation in the political system and
women’s human rights in the legal and social systems, including the elimination
of discrimination against women in law and in practice.

This thematic research will culminate in the report that the Working Group
will present to the Human Rights Council in 2013.

In this regard, the Working Group would like to invite anyone to contribute
to its research by submitting information on:

• Constitutional and other legislative initiatives and
  reforms put in place to promote women’s rights and gender equality,
  including through the revision and repeal of discriminatory provisions in
  legislation;

• Strengthening the framework of state institutions,
  machineries and mechanisms to implement actions in order to eliminate all
  forms of discrimination and violence against women;

• Improving women’s political participation, on equal
  terms with men, in the transitional and post-transitional process at all
  levels of decision-making, including through the adoption of temporary special
  measures;

• and increasing women’s access to justice, including
  transitional justice mechanisms.

The Working Group would like to encourage that the information on the above
points and any additional information that may be submitted highlights in particular
good practices, lessons learnt and promising experience in the
elimination of discrimination against women in the field of political and
public life both in general terms and/or with particular reference to times of
political transition.

The Working Group sees the issue of women’s participation in political and
public life as crucial as many obstacles still prevent women from participating
in public and political life on an equal footing with men. Furthermore women
are limited in their ability to pass on their nationality and citizenship to
spouses and to children, in the way that men can. This discrimination strikes
at the essence of women’s right to equal citizenship and human dignity and
impacts on the freedom of movement of women.

The Working Group notes that various individuals and organisations may wish
to develop documents and reports of consultations to submit for consideration.
In accordance with the established practice of mandate-holders, the Working
Group welcomes all relevant submissions that NGO’s and other independent
experts may wish to transmit for its consideration in preparation of either the
annual report on women’s participation in political and public in times of
political transition or for the purpose of collecting good practices in this
field in general terms.

These submissions should be sent to wgdiscriminationwomen@ohchr.org.