35/29 Report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
Document Type: Final Report
Date: 2017 Apr
Session: 35th Regular Session (2017 Jun)
Agenda Item: Item3: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
GE.17-06247(E)
Human Rights Council Thirty-fifth session
6-23 June 2017
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
Note by the Secretariat
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of
the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice,
pursuant to Council resolutions 15/23, 26/5 and 32/4. In the report, the Working Group
proposes an analysis on good practices for the elimination of discrimination against women
in law and in practice and for women’s empowerment. The question of how to identify
good practices in ending discrimination against women is particularly poignant at this
historical juncture, where a profound backlash against hard-won progress is occurring in all
spheres. The continuing rise of fundamentalisms of all kinds and openly misogynistic,
racist, xenophobic and populist voices, including Governments, is of grave concern to the
Group. Efforts to re-entrench patriarchal understandings of sex, gender and family into the
law point to important questions about sustaining progress and ensuring that good practices
continue to be possible in fraught contexts. Ongoing attacks on autonomous women’s
movements, civil society organizations, independent academia, public interest lawyers and
women’s human rights defenders by State and non-State actors alike underscore the
importance of identifying those good practices that uphold human rights gains.
United Nations A/HRC/35/29
Report of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
Contents
Page
I. Activities ....................................................................................................................................... 3
A. Sessions ................................................................................................................................ 3
B. Country visits ........................................................................................................................ 3
C. Communications and press releases ...................................................................................... 3
D. Other activities ...................................................................................................................... 4
II. Thematic analysis: good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women and
women’s empowerment ................................................................................................................ 4
A. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4
B. Conceptual framework .......................................................................................................... 5
C. Selected case studies ............................................................................................................. 7
III. Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................................... 18
A. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 18
B. Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 19
` I. Activities
1. The present report covers the activities of the Working Group on the issue of
discrimination against women in law and in practice undertaken since the submission of its
previous report (A/HRC/32/44) until March 2017.
A. Sessions
2. The Working Group held two sessions in New York and one in Geneva during the
period under review.1 The roles of Chair-Rapporteur and Vice-Chair of the Working Group
were carried out by Alda Facio and Kamala Chandrakirana, respectively. At its sixteenth
session (18-22 July 2016), the Group held consultations on good practices with various
stakeholders, including States, civil society organizations and relevant United Nations
entities. It also met, inter alia, with the office of the Special Rapporteur on Women’s Rights
of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
3. At its seventeenth session (10-14 October 2016), the Working Group continued its
consultations on good practices. It held meetings with members of the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, the
Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, the Special Rapporteur in the field of
cultural rights and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. It also held consultations with various
concerned stakeholders on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
4. At its eighteenth session (23-27 January 2017), the Working Group completed its
work on the compendium of good practices. It chaired a round-table discussion on women
migrant workers, organized by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), with the participation of members from the
Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families, as well as State and civil society representatives. It also met with concerned
United Nations entities, including UN-Women and UNFPA, on the indicators of the
Sustainable Development Goals.
B. Country visits
5. The experts visited Hungary from 17 to 27 May 2016 (A/HRC/35/29/Add.1) and
Kuwait from 6 to 15 December 2016 (A/HRC/35/29/Add.2). They wish to thank the
Governments of those countries for their cooperation before and during the visits. It also
thanks the Governments of Chad and Samoa for having invited the Working Group to
conduct official visits in 2017.
C. Communications and press releases
6. During the period under review, the Working Group addressed communications to
Governments, individually or jointly with other mandate holders. The communications
concerned a wide range of subjects falling within its mandate, including discriminatory
legislation and practices, allegations of abuses of women human rights defenders and
violations of their rights, gender-based violence and rights to reproductive and sexual health
(see A/HRC/33/32, A/HRC/34/75 and A/HRC/35/44). The Working Group also issued
press releases, individually or jointly with other mandate holders and treaty bodies.
1 During the previous cycle, two sessions had been held in Geneva and one in New York.
D. Other activities
7. A member of the Working Group attended the sixty-first session of the Commission
on the Status of Women, held in New York from 13 to 17 March. She participated, inter
alia, in a high-level interactive dialogue on accelerating the implementation of
commitments contained in the agreed conclusions for gender equality and the
empowerment of women and girls, in an event on strengthened cooperation between the
international and regional human rights mechanisms on women’s rights and participated in
several consultations. She met with the Secretary General together with a group of
women’s rights experts.
8. A member of the Working Group participated in the 2016 Forum on Business and
Human Rights, where she spoke on 14 November in a panel discussion on embedding
gender in the business and human rights agenda.
9. In September 2016, the Chair participated in the thirteenth annual forum of the
Association for Women’s Rights in Development, on the theme “Feminist futures: building
collective power for rights and justice”, attended by more than 2,000 activists from all
regions of the world.
10. In May 2016, a member of the Working Group attended the Symbolic Tribunal on
Maternal Mortality and Obstetric Violence, held in Mexico and co-organized by the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights OHCHR.
II. Thematic analysis: good practices in the elimination of discrimination against women and women’s empowerment
A. Introduction
11. The present report focuses on good practices in the elimination of discrimination
against women in law and practice and women’s empowerment pursuant to Human Rights
Council resolution 15/23, in which the Council established the mandate of the Working
Group, including the collection of best practices in the area of the mandate and the
development of a compendium of best practices.
12. The Working Group, in establishing its conceptual framework and working methods
(A/HRC/20/28), decided to use the term of “good” or “promising” practices rather than
“best” practices, taking into account the complex contextual framework of the wide
spectrum of good to bad practices.
13. The present report builds on the Working Group’s first six years of work, of which
investigating good practices was a core undertaking. It is the fruit of a long-term process of
inquiry and consultation undertaken with States, United Nations agencies and civil society.
It is informed by the Group’s 4 thematic reports and 12 country visits, as well as data
gathered through research and consultations held specifically for the present report.
14. The Working Group wishes to express gratitude for the information submitted by
diverse stakeholders in response to its questionnaire.2 In order to ensure diverse inputs, the
Group also benefitted from the support of a team of researchers based in all regions of the
world, coordinated by the Women’s Human Rights Education Institute. It also held
consultations with States, civil society organizations and United Nations entities when
support was available. The enormous amount of data received goes well beyond the bounds
of the present report and is available on the Group’s website.3
2 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/CompendiumGoodPractices.aspx.
3 Ibid.
B. Conceptual framework
15. The Working Group appreciates that significant work has been done by other
human rights mechanisms and United Nations agencies to gather good practices in the
context of their work. It notes that there is no harmonized understanding of how to identify
and investigate good practices, particularly in the context of the elimination of
discrimination against women. Building on existing work in this area, the Group seeks to
articulate its experience and expertise to further the conversation on methodological
understandings of “good practices” and/or “promising practices” in the context of ending
discrimination against women, to identify and share examples of good practices that serve
as creative inspiration for the implementation of women’s human rights in multiple
contexts, and to open an ongoing engagement process of collective knowledge-building in
this area.
16. The purpose of the compendium, an exercise that extends beyond merely compiling
a series of good laws or legal amendments, is to explore good practices that promote the
elimination of discrimination against women, supporting both de jure and de facto
realization of rights.
17. The law is an essential mechanism for women’s enjoyment of human rights. Law is
both informed by and the creator of norms in society. Laws determine the values and
operating principles by which actions and behaviours are deemed acceptable, or
criminalized and stigmatized, and can have an enabling or chilling effect on women’s
human rights.
18. The Working Group considers that laws may at times constitute good practices in
and of themselves, but that more often they function as a component in the development of
good practices. Constitutional amendments, laws or legal reforms, court decisions and the
full range of ways in which laws are crafted and codified in diverse societies form an
important piece of the “good practices” puzzle, and can have an immediate impact on de
facto equality. A law can be “promising” or “good” in its crafting and articulation, and a
court decision can be good, but for it to be considered a good practice, a wider context must
be considered than can be found simply through analysis of a legal text. The Group is of the
view that a good law usually becomes a good practice in conjunction with ancillary factors,
such as the process by which it comes into being and is disseminated, operationalized and
implemented. This is not to understate the importance of the law itself, but rather to
emphasize that considerations of good practices cannot be based wholly on the legal texts
themselves, but must be analysed in context, including tangible outcomes in lived reality.
19. Consideration of good practices in a global context requires an expansive approach
to looking at the law and its implementation, to allow for inclusion of diverse practices
reflective of varied political and legal systems and to support the identification of creative
methods of supporting rights-fulfilment. Therefore, the present report includes not only all
those constitutional, legislative and other rules and norms that are considered law in
different legal systems, but also judicial review, legislative reform, litigation and case law,
policy but also institutional reform, human rights monitoring, religious or cultural
hermeneutic projects, partnership agreements between State and non-State actors, local,
national and regional legal frameworks.
20. Significant progress in legal and policy frameworks for women’s rights has been
made in the past decades. Nevertheless, while many countries have undertaken to repeal
discriminatory laws, such laws persist in many parts of the world. Severely discriminatory
laws and practices remain in particular areas of women’s human rights that continue to be
contested, such as sexual and reproductive rights and equal rights in the family.
Discriminatory laws also exist where the law is used punitively against women to maintain
patriarchal values or to criminalize women’s struggles for their rights. In all contexts, there
are ongoing challenges to the inclusion of an intersectoral approach to women’s full
equality. Even in areas where the legal framework has advanced, or in societies with
extensive and robust gender equality laws and policies, the test lies in the ability to
implement progressive laws in practice. Innumerable barriers remain on many levels, not
least of which is the male-controlled and discriminatory environment within which laws are
operationalized. A good law requires a fully ameliorating environment in which it can be
meaningfully implemented. No matter how strongly the law is drafted, it is filtered through
the biases and limitations of the individuals and institutions, public and private, responsible
for grounding it in reality, compounded by a social environment that disadvantages women
through the perpetuation of historical discrimination, the patriarchal construction of gender
and the perpetuation of stereotypes and prejudices. These factors must be considered
closely when identifying which laws have become good practices.
21. The question of how to identify good practices in ending discrimination against
women is particularly poignant at this historical juncture, where a profound backlash
against hard-won progress is occurring in all spheres. The continuing rise of
fundamentalisms of all kinds and openly misogynistic, racist, xenophobic and populist
voices, including Governments, is of grave concern to the Working Group. Efforts to re-
entrench patriarchal understandings of sex, gender and family into the law point to
important questions about sustaining progress and ensuring that good practices continue to
be possible in fraught contexts. Ongoing attacks on autonomous women’s movements, civil
society organizations, independent academia, public interest lawyers and women’s human
rights defenders by State and non-State actors alike underscore the importance of not only
protecting and supporting the crucial role of women human rights defenders, but also
identifying those good practices which uphold human rights gains.
22. Naming a “good practice” is a complex process. The purpose of investigating and
sharing good practices is to help build collective knowledge and public recognition of the
steps and processes States must undertake to fulfil their obligations under international
human rights law. States’ duty to respect, protect and fulfil women’s human rights are
requirements of human rights law. Good practices illustrate the ways and means to
implement human rights most effectively in diverse contexts. When good practices are
viewed in isolation from the breadth of actions and actors involved in processes of social
change, they can lose their power as a source of learning and fail to enhance collective
knowledge of what it takes to bring human rights principles into reality.
23. The Working Group stresses that human rights are universal while recognizing that
good practices must reflect the multiple contexts of diverse stakeholders. Frameworks of
analysis thus require flexibility and creativity to capture the full complexity of any practice,
including both its successes and shortcomings. This emphasis on context also requires a
robust consideration of current challenges to human rights implementation on a global,
regional, national and local scale. This contextualized consideration of challenges and
search for good practices in no way derogates from the assertion in the Vienna Declaration
that women’s rights are human rights and “all human rights are universal, indivisible,
interdependent and interrelated”.
24. The Working Group found that many examples cited as good practices in law did
not show the process by which they were established, or the many factors and diverse
actors that enabled the practice to come into being. In the present report, the Group
undertakes to focus on the process of developing the ways and means to implement
women’s right to equality. To understand what is required to support gender equality from a
holistic approach, both quantitative and qualitative data are equally necessary, and, given
the long-term process of social change, an historical perspective is important.
25. Given these complexities, the Working Group proposes a methodology for
identifying good practices by investigating partial and substantial victories in the realization
of women’s human rights with a view to decoding the full breadth of actors, initiatives and
milestones required to fully implement State obligations under international human rights
law. Rather than making generalizations about indicators of good practice, the Group’s
research process focused on investigating and documenting promising and good practices in
all regions of the world by applying a living-law approach.
26. The living-law approach looks at laws beyond the text of a legislation or judicial
decision, including the dynamic processes by which that law comes into being, is
implemented meaningfully and contributes to real and sustainable outcomes for women’s
de facto enjoyment of human rights. Thus, a living-law approach involves understanding
laws in the context of dynamic and sustained processes situated in local social, political,
historical and legal realities and in relation to the acts of a diversity of duty and rights
holders alike. As such, the living-law approach is inherently grounded in particular contexts
and moments in time. This methodology thus requires examining a multitude of ways and
means States have used to achieve successful outcomes in terms of fulfilling their
obligations regarding women’s human rights, along with a robust consideration of
processes and actors in play, including those that overcome and perpetuate barriers to
substantive achievement. This exploration process has not focused on identifying or
ranking “best practices”, but rather has examined the ways and means through which States
can promote substantive equality, recognizing that progress is not always linear and that de
facto change requires multiple strategies; effective responses to lessons learned from
mistakes made; context-specific interventions; and sustained time and resources.
International human rights framework and good practices
27. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,
which has been ratified almost universally and is considered by many jurists to be part of
customary international law, determines that States have the obligation to respect, protect
and fulfil women’s right to non-discrimination and to the enjoyment of equality in all fields.
Those rights are also enshrined in other international and regional human rights
conventions. The scope of the Convention includes and goes beyond de jure discrimination,
requiring nothing less than substantive equality, or women’s full de facto enjoyment of
their rights. National legal frameworks must be developed, adopted and implemented from
a holistic rights-based approach that addresses the fullness of State obligation, including:
(a) respecting rights by repealing and eliminating laws or any other State action that
directly or indirectly discriminate against women; (b) protecting rights by acting with due
diligence to ensure that neither State or non-State actors violate women’s rights and
ensuring redress for violations; and (c) fulfilling rights by ensuring that laws and attendant
policies contain comprehensive measures to guarantee their meaningful implementation and
impact on women’s empowerment. The scope of State obligation under the Convention
requires active measures to combat patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes that shape an
environment in which discrimination against women is tolerated and normalized, both in
the law and in the application of the law. The Convention demands multi-pronged strategies
to promote social change, not only isolated actions to improve women’s access to existing
systems. States are obliged to establish a strong legal infrastructure to support women’s de
jure and de facto equality as an important step in the cultivation of good practices.
C. Selected case studies
28. The case studies offer both practical and conceptual insights into good practices and
have the potential to serve as road maps. Some are promising practices that have not fully
come into fruition or that have been derailed but are nevertheless illustrative and important
for understanding what is required to develop and sustain good practices in the elimination
of discrimination. Although contexts vary, core principles that create ameliorating
environments for women’s human rights are transferable, even when a practice is not
directly replicable.
29. The cases are organized under the themes of the Working Group’s reports to date,
with a fifth section highlighting a salient theme that emerged from the research process: the
role of autonomous women’s organizing. Owing to space limitations, each case is offered in
summary format; more detailed renderings are included in an appendix to the report
available on the Group’s website.
1. Political and public life
30. The right to participate in all areas of political and public life is an essential
prerequisite for the fulfilment of many other rights. Despite progress in many States,
women’s representation in elected office — especially at the senior level, the judiciary,
civil service or in entities such as unions, national human rights institutions or international
agencies, including the United Nations — falls short of the good practice standard of equal
representation.
31. Good practice requires: (a) the removal of barriers, whether cultural, economic,
institutional or religious, preventing women from having an equal opportunity to gain
access to positions of power at all levels; (b) the elimination of disempowering stereotypes,
misogyny and violence against women in public and private spheres; (c) parity for women
in decision-making forums; (d) and gender-sensitive mainstreaming of policymaking
processes, including budgeting.
Quotas and supportive measures
32. The following case study was from the Asia region. Despite strong constitutional
guarantees for “equal status of opportunity” and non-discrimination on multiple grounds,
discrimination against women remained deeply entrenched. This resulted in women’s
exclusion from political and public life, particularly in rural areas and among ethnic
minorities and marginalized groups of women. In 1993, in an effort to address structural
barriers to women’s participation in political and public life, the State had adopted a
constitutional amendment mandating one-third reservations for women — including
women from historically disenfranchised groups — in village and district councils
throughout the country. Consequently, the 1994 elections had brought nearly 1 million
elected women representatives into local governance bodies.
33. As the law had been enacted quickly and without supportive measures, many
challenges arose. This included the placing of women as proxy candidates for male
politicians; patriarchal and ethnic divisions that led to active exclusion of elected women
representatives; a lack of appropriate support and skills development to address widespread
illiteracy among rural women; a democratic deficit due to the history of exclusion from
public life; women’s lack of self-perception as leaders; and a backlash in the form of
harassment, social exclusion and gender-based violence. It was also found that many
elected women representatives were unlikely to contest elections more than once.
34. In response, civil society organizations, government and international agencies
introduced initiatives to support women’s participation. Pre-election voter awareness
campaigns were undertaken to counteract the perception that the one-third reservation
signified the maximum number of seats available for women. A range of programmes were
also undertaken in ensuing years, including longer-term capacity-building efforts led by
civil society organizations with elected women representatives, in which women
representatives received both ongoing training to strengthen their leadership and advocacy
skills and education on gender issues of concern in the community.
35. Women were also mobilized through the establishment of an ongoing meeting
platform for elected female representatives at the village level designed to support them in
preparation for making policy recommendations at the main village council meetings.
Given their success, these meeting platforms have been legally mandated since 2012,
requiring all local governments to hold such meetings in advance of general village
meetings. Additionally, the legal framework was further fortified through State-level laws
entrenching or boosting the quota from one-third to 50 per cent, including leadership
positions. A draft constitutional amendment in 2009 sought to raise the requirement to
parity within all elected positions nationwide, but the bill lapsed.
36. Research overwhelmingly indicated that the presence of women in rural governance
has had positive impacts on key gendered concerns, including the improvement of health
services, water and sanitation facilities, and microcredit schemes for women. Issues related
to discrimination and violence against women were also being addressed by women
representatives. Additional research showed significant impacts on attitudinal changes and
in the elimination of gender stereotypes, demonstrated in shifts in the organization of labour
in households, women’s self-perception and increased societal support for girls’ education
and future aspirations. These correlations increased in villages where women chairs had
been elected a second time.
37. The introduction of quotas provided a strong and unassailable legal prerogative for
women’s inclusion in local-level political bodies. However, the legal framework on its own
was insufficient to ensure the meaningful political participation of women until the
introduction of complementary measures, integrally involving civil society organizations,
that addressed the patriarchal context and women’s historical disenfranchisement and
ongoing discrimination.
38. While this good practice has enabled the participation of more than 10 million rural
women in local politics, it has not led to greater political participation of women at higher
levels of governance. Indeed, the Government has yet to be successful in adopting quotas or
parity laws for women at higher levels of government, raising questions regarding the limits
and sustainability of continued growth in women’s political participation and access to
power.
Key lessons
39. The adoption of parity laws or quotas for women is a good practice to combat the
manifold barriers to women’s political participation and to ensure immediate representation
of women in political bodies.
40. Policies must be implemented in tandem with quotas to mitigate the effects of
historical discrimination and to support women’s success and impact in politics, including
capacity-building performed in tandem with autonomous women’s organizations as well as
regional or international partners.
2. Economic and social life
41. Women’s right to equality in economic and social life as enshrined in multiple
human rights treaties is substantive, immediate and enforceable. States are obliged to act
with due diligence to prevent discrimination of those rights by any actors and to ensure
their fulfilment. Yet women continue to experience discrimination in all areas of economic
and social life. The feminization of poverty, particularly in contexts of crisis and austerity,
is a well-documented phenomenon. Gender stereotypes perpetuate women’s economic and
social marginalization, exclude them from the labour market and place a disproportionate
burden on them for unpaid, low paid or informal work. Intersectional discrimination on the
grounds of ethnicity, age, disability, sexual identity or orientation, among others,
disproportionately marginalizes particular groups of women.
42. Good practice in promoting women’s equality and empowerment in economic and
social life requires measures that support equal opportunity, accommodation for gender-
specific needs and equal enjoyment of benefits. In accordance with international standards,
equal opportunities, equal pay for work of equal value, paid maternity leave in accordance
with international standards and parental leave for both men and women must be legally
mandated in both formal and informal employment sectors. Women must be fully
integrated into economic policymaking both at the State level and in financial institutions
that determine economic policy in practice.
Women and economic crisis
43. The following case study originated in a country in the Western region with a strong
commitment to gender equality, owing in large part to a history of organization by women’s
that contributed to a wide acceptance of feminism in society and shaped progressive
government policies. Nevertheless, inequality included a persistent gender wage gap; high
gender segregation of the labour market, including women’s low leadership levels in the
private sector; and prevalent gender-based violence.
44. Nonetheless, social awareness of women’s issues in the country was uniquely
strong, creating an ameliorating environment for mobilization around feminist analyses of
social, political and economic issues. This was evidenced in 2008 when the complete
collapse of the country’s banking system led to a major financial crisis. Widespread
protests precipitated a change in Government and led to the election of a feminist
Government headed by a woman, who appointed women to most cabinet roles, including
the Ministries of the Economy and Finance. The new administration commissioned an
analysis of the banking crisis to build upon existing feminist critiques of the masculinist
financial culture of unfettered risk and neoliberal policies as major causative factors. The
research confirmed those critiques and highlighted the effects of increasing privatization of
political power among predominantly male, private-sector elites, whose actions had
precipitated the crisis.
45. A somewhat unconventional approach to the economic crisis was thus grounded in a
gender analysis that focused on maintaining gains in equality as part of the economic
recovery process. It combined temporary policy and executive decisions aimed at
preventing disproportionate effects on women and vulnerable sectors of the population with
mechanisms and measures for ongoing monitoring and data collection to ascertain impact.
Simultaneously, the Government prioritized the implementation of long-term legal and
policy measures to strengthen gender equality.
46. Between 2009 and 2013, the Government introduced temporary measures to counter
the shifting effects of the crisis on women and men. As a result of pressure to cover the
foreign debt that had been accumulated by national banks, the Government made cuts in
infrastructure such as health care and primary education, as well as in family benefits such
as parental leave. However, the resulting funds were strategically used to provide nominal
increases in basic unemployment benefits, social protection allowances and disability
pensions to shelter individuals most affected by the resource cuts. Elderly women and
women with disabilities were the major beneficiaries, and women made up almost two-
thirds of unemployment benefits claimants. In addition, measures to tackle household debt
by sheltering low-income and single-parent households from losing their disposable
earnings benefitted women, as they were likely to feature more prominently in both
categories.
47. Concurrently, the Government maintained a focus on long-term measures to
promote gender equality, including the introduction of gender-responsive budgeting, the
appointment of gender equality experts within different ministries, the adoption of quotas
on the boards of corporations and plans of action for gender equality and violence
prevention. The Government also established monitoring mechanisms, such as a gender
equality watch and a welfare watch. The welfare watch — which initially operated from
2009 to 2013 under the Ministry of Welfare and a steering committee of experts from
Government, labour groups, academia, the financial sector, teachers’ unions, civil society
organizations and stakeholders — was in charge of assessing the most pressing welfare
issues to be addressed and proposing gender-responsive measures. The model was
recognized as innovative and effective.
48. While assessment of the impact of such measures was not uniform, and questions
remained about whether the gendered analysis and approach to the crisis had deep impacts
on the reconstruction of the economy, it can be said that the gender-sensitive response of
the Government pre-empted a regression in welfare and women’s rights that had usually
accompanied austerity measures. In addition, knowledge of the gendered and intersectional
dimensions of crises and the effectiveness of the responses was enhanced through
monitoring and data collection. The policies undertaken in response to the crisis
demonstrated not only an uncompromising commitment to gender equality but also an
acknowledgment of its centrality to a healthy, robust and resilient society.
Key lessons
49. The integration of gender responsive measures and protection of social welfare
systems during economic crises can protect women’s human rights gains and, at the same
time, support healthy recovery.
50. Efforts to sensitize society to women’s human rights issues and feminist analysis,
and their inclusion in Government research and policy, create an ameliorating environment
for progressive legal and policy development and implementation, in contrast to a
masculinist financial culture of unfettered risk and neoliberal policies.
3. Cultural and family life
51. Cultural rights are central to the realization of women’s human rights. Culture is
neither homogenous nor immutable but is often presented as being so, and hence as creating
an irrevocable barrier to equality rights for women. States have obligations to recognize and
actively combat the deep entrenchment of patriarchal culture based on gender stereotypes in
legal, political, religious, social and cultural institutions. While this obligation applies to all
aspects of life, patriarchal gender stereotypes are often firmly entrenched in laws and social
norms governing family, and often reinforced by religious authorities.
52. Good practices in cultural and family life require a guarantee of women’s right to
equality in autonomy and self-determination and the legal and social recognition of women
as agents of cultural change. Legal and cultural norms that subjugate women to male
control must be actively challenged and eradicated. States must endeavour to repeal all
discriminatory provisions in the law, particularly those governing marriage and divorce,
child-rearing, inheritance, freedom of movement, access to capital, credit and income-
generating activities. In addition to the elimination of direct discrimination, good practices
in this area require that States take active measures to support substantive equality through
the law and long-term awareness-raising initiatives directed towards the eradication of
patriarchal stereotypes and attitudes.
Challenging discrimination: gender sensitive education for cultural change
53. The following case study originated in Eastern Europe, in a State that had
undertaken a lengthy legislative and institutional reform process since gaining
independence in 1991. In a predominantly patriarchal context, attempts to introduce and
support legal and policy frameworks for gender equality had faced significant opposition.
Subsequent to a review in 2009 by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women, the Government adopted a gender policy concept paper and strategic
action plan for the period 2011-2015, including provisions for gender sensitization of
teachers and educational curriculum.
54. In 2013, Parliament passed a law on the equal rights and equal opportunities of
women and men. The law reiterated the constitutional guarantee of gender equality, defined
gender discrimination and contained provisions against direct and indirect discrimination.
However, the law generated a great deal of social controversy and backlash because of the
perception that it represented an attack on “family values”. Women’s civil society
organizations became targets of harassment and protests erupted, with demonstrators
calling the law “national treason”.
55. The Government had achieved little progress in implementing the gender policy
strategic action plan, owing in part to the public backlash and lack of resource allocation. A
civil society organization from the women’s rights movement secured funds to launch a
three-year project on gender sensitive education to address a social and cultural
environment characterized by profound resistance to the concept of gender equality.
56. That civil society organization navigated the challenging context by building
strategic partnerships with experts and Government. Together with educational experts,
they developed a theoretical and practical educational guidebook entitled “Women and
Men: Different but Equal”, which was subsequently approved for use by the Ministry of
Education and Science. It supported the incorporation of gender curricula into mandatory
courses, such as social studies, and included discussion of gender, reproductive rights and
violence prevention.
57. In order to institutionalize gender-sensitive teacher training, advocates from civil
society organizations convened meetings with government ministries, other such
organizations, educators and experts to develop a training module on gender equality and
gender violence in partnership with the National Institute of Education, the authority in
charge of teacher training. Despite some school directors’ resistance, thousands of social
science teachers were trained and the Institute is committed to institutionalizing the
training.
58. According to evaluations, despite its short duration, the project’s focus on education
is a promising practice for a number of reasons. First, what started as a civil society
organization initiative attracted the institutional support of the National Institute of
Education and the Ministry of Education and Science in the dissemination of the
educational guidebook in schools, the development of the teacher training module and the
roll-out of training sessions. In addition, the undertaking created a political space for civil
society organizations and public authorities to take action in a challenging context, allowing
meaningful steps towards fulfilling the objectives of the strategic action plan.
59. While these measures alone will not achieve substantive equality, intervention in the
education system is projected to bear fruit in terms of creating a positive environment for
social discussion of and support for gender equality issues. Preliminary outcome studies of
training programmes in two regions of the country demonstrated shifts in attitudes towards
gender equality and violence against women, but the curriculum and training policies have
not yet been applied uniformly across the country, limiting systemic impact.
60. Project evaluation shows a need for further focus on planning, as well as measurable
objectives and outcomes for the training. Resource allocation is also an issue. Currently, the
teacher training has been institutionalized only as a one-hour module, despite calls for more
comprehensive training. A greater investment of time is warranted to support attitudinal and
behavioural changes.
61. The gender-sensitive education initiative is a promising practice in a fraught context,
but is not a stand-alone measure. The case study demonstrates that gender equality cannot
be fully achieved through sectorial approaches, but instead requires the creation of an
enabling environment animated by comprehensive long-term measures emphasizing the
interconnectedness of women’s rights in order to yield both legal and social change.
Key lessons
62. The partnership of autonomous women’s organizations and independent experts
with expertise in women’s rights with public authorities is a key element of progressive
policy implementation.
63. Public education and teacher training are a crucial entry point for addressing
systemic discrimination and promoting a culture of human rights, undertaken in tandem
with complementary measures for systemic change.
4. Health and safety
64. Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical,
mental and social well-being”. Women’s rights to equality and to the highest attainable
standards of health, including those related to reproductive and sexual health, and the
interconnected right to a life free of violence are enshrined in international and regional
human rights instruments and reaffirmed in international consensus agreements, yet remain
among the most contested and violated women’s human rights standards. Gender-based
violence and the instrumentalization and politicization of women’s bodies and women’s
health agenda continue to undermine the fulfilment of women’s human rights throughout
the world. These violations, fed by patriarchal ideologies and stereotypes that reduce
women to means of reproduction or sexual objects, undermine women’s autonomy and self-
determination, affecting the fulfilment of their human rights.
65. Good practices in this area require a differentiated approach in order to meet
women’s particular needs, influenced by biological functions and social constructions of
gender alike. The instrumentalization of women’s bodies, particularly as regarding sexual
and reproductive health, and the ongoing normalization of violence against women must be
combatted through rights-based measures that put women’s right to dignity, autonomy and
self-determination at the core of legal and policy undertakings.
Mobilizing the law for social change
66. The following case study from the African region elucidates the myriad factors
required to develop and maintain a good practice in addressing violence against girls, as
well as the attendant impacts on the right to health, safety and access to justice, among
others. The background to the case begins with a constitutional reform process undertaken
with high levels of public engagement, resulting in 2010 in a robust new constitution that
included strong equality provisions, the incorporation of international and regional human
rights treaties and the creation of an ameliorating environment for public interest litigation.
67. In 2011, a social worker who founded a local shelter for girl survivors of sexual
violence and an international human rights lawyer initiated a coalition with local, regional
and international civil society organizations, feminist lawyers and the national human rights
commission to file a case seeking to hold the police accountable for failure to address
rampant sexual violence against girls. The 160 Girls case was brought to the High Court in
2012. With the support of the shelter, 11 applicants were chosen from more than 160
victims of child rape who had been denied access to justice. The remaining victims were
represented by the twelfth applicant, which was the rape shelter itself. It was the first case
brought to the High Court under the equality provisions laid out in the 2010 Constitution.
The decision was instrumental in establishing the failure of the police to meet national and
international standards to conduct prompt, effective, proper and professional investigations
into complaints, thereby preventing access to justice. With the use of relevant international
human rights instruments and progressive interpretation of constitutional rights and State
obligation, the jurisprudence was precedent-setting. The seminal contribution of the
decision lay in establishing the rights of the child and the delineation of the scope of State
obligation in protecting children from violence, and the duty to investigate and apply
existing rape laws.
68. In its decision, the Court recognized that the girls’ constitutional rights had been
violated and that the police had failed to act with due diligence as agents of the State. The
police force was ordered to implement article 244 of the Constitution, requiring them to
train staff to the highest possible standards of competence and integrity and to respect
human rights and fundamental freedoms and dignity. Police officers were ordered to
investigate the perpetrators of the 11 applicants and to ensure effective investigations in all
child rape claims. As at early 2016, 80 per cent of such cases had resulted in convictions,
while others were pending before courts and additional investigations had been initiated.
The judgment has been referenced in other cases, including an important class action suit
by victims of post-election violence, and the high courts have issued further progressive
decisions on related grounds.
69. What makes this case study a uniquely good practice is that, rather than ending with
a court decision, the coalition of organizations involved continued to work together to
expand that decision into a comprehensive movement for change. The 160 Girls Project
developed as a result of the case centres on training and education programmes involving
police, shelters, social workers and community members to ensure a multi-level long-term
impact. A rape investigation training programme for police was developed that included a
peer-to-peer train-the-trainers element with international police officers and ongoing
training from equality lawyers and the national human rights commission. Research has
shown positive impacts, including documented attitudinal changes and increased
professionalism in the handling of child rape cases. Furthermore, training programmes have
been developed for shelter workers on documenting sexual violence cases and the rights of
victims.
70. Community education programmes are a key component of the implementation
strategy. In this case, a robust pilot project on public legal education included community
training on the decision and the related girls’ rights and police obligations; awareness-
raising events including drama/theatre and panel discussions; rights-training for children; a
smartphone application giving details on the steps to take in rape investigations; and public
awareness materials, including billboards, radio and television programmes, social media
outreach and short videos on the Internet. These measures have been replicated in other
parts of the country.
71. While the ongoing efforts of project partners have ensured sustained impacts, the
context of endemic sexualized violence against girls and women continues to be an issue.
Those regions of the country that face heightened security issues present challenges, and it
remains to be demonstrated whether there can be shifts in public sentiment regarding rape
of women. A highly active civil society ensures that courts continue to be used to push for
progress on the implementation of girls’ rights and on State responsibility for protecting
children against sexual violence. However, it is unclear whether civil society organizations
bear a disproportionate burden vis-à-vis the State, and whether the enabling context for
such organizations will be maintained. Challenges include ensuring ongoing sources of
funding for the project and decreasing reliance on overseas funding.
Key lessons
72. A strong human rights-based constitutional framework for equality, a progressive
judiciary, an active autonomous civil society and an environment conducive to public
interest litigation are important complementary factors in the development of good
practices.
73. Impact is attained through follow-up measures and sustained action, by both State
and non-State actors. Progressive court decisions must be widely disseminated and
popularized among duty holders and rights holders alike to have broader structural impact.
5. Civil society and autonomous women’s organizing
74. Women’s participation and self-determination in the development and application of
the laws that shape the parameters of their lives is a human right. Supporting the existence
of and collaborative engagement with autonomous women’s movements is a core
component of State obligation to end discrimination against women. The case studies
investigated for the present report demonstrate the centrality of an active citizenry,
autonomous women’s movements and civil society organizations with progressive
frameworks that align with women’s human rights standards as key factors in achieving
positive changes in the development and application of the law.
75. The Working Group considers that the study of the ways and means by which those
movements engage with processes of change involving the law merits in-depth
consideration. Such investigation will reveal specific ways that States can create an
ameliorating environment for and work collaboratively with autonomous women’s
movements towards eliminating discrimination against women in law and in practice.
76. The three case studies below exemplify the crucial role of women’s autonomous
organizing in the interrelated developmental processes of good practices as articulated in
the living-law approach of the present report.
(a) Political and constitutional reform
Women’s participation in democratic movements and constitution-building
77. The following case study, originating in a country of the Middle East and North
Africa Region, highlights the central role of women’s autonomous organizing in promoting
political and legal changes to eradicate discrimination against women and to promote
substantive equality. The country had a long history of Government-led reform promoting
gender equality in the law. This included broad legal reforms granting women autonomy
and self-determination in public and family life, with progressive provisions in terms of
sexual and reproductive rights. Women’s organizations had previously existed, but the
political climate did not support autonomy. Growing authoritarianism in the regime and the
prevalence of discriminatory attitudes had diminished the transformation of women’s
traditional roles and the attainment of substantive equality. In 2011, a political revolution
led by social movements brought about the downfall of the Government and led to the
democratization of the State.
78. Women’s organizations played an important role in achieving the goals of the
revolution and continued to play an active role in the emergence of a new vision for gender
equality. The post-revolution period generated significant public debate during the drafting
of a new constitution. Women’s movements worked to keep women on the agenda,
introducing a draft feminist constitution early in 2012 that they were invited to present to
the National Constituent Assembly. They continued to advocate and mobilize society to
oppose regressive elements, maintaining pressure for strong gender equality provisions. In
2012, women successfully organized against article 2.28 of the draft constitution, which
had established the complementarity of men and women, rather than the right to equality.
The women’s movements, with the assistance of the Working Group through its
communications and a country visit, brought about a revision of the draft constitution. That
victory was a key factor in the development of a rights-based constitutional framework for
gender equality.
79. The new Constitution, adopted in 2014, enshrined the equality of the sexes before
the law without discrimination and committed the State to protecting and strengthening
gains in women’s rights, guaranteeing the equality of opportunities in all domains and
protecting against legal regression. Another progressive measure was the inclusion of the
principle of parity in elected assemblies and a clear statement that men and women alike
could run for president. The progressive framework of the constitution was protected in
article 49, which affirmed that no amendment could undermine the human rights and
freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution.
80. Women’s rights advocates pointed to some areas of concern in the constitutional
framework that were illustrative of the ongoing political and cultural struggle between the
protection and contestation of conservative gender roles. While a single State religion was
recognized and protected in the Constitution, it also includes provisions reiterating that the
country was a civil State based on the primacy of law that promoted moderation and
tolerance. How those potentially conflicting interests would work out in practice remained
to be seen, particularly given that the constitutional courts were not yet in place.
81. While insufficient time has elapsed since adoption of the 2014 Constitution to fully
assess its impacts, the crucial importance of this broad legal umbrella for women’s equality
cannot be overstated. Translating constitutional protections into reality will require the
ongoing harmonized efforts of the Government and civil society. Some constitutional
provisions have yet to be entrenched in the law, such as the stalled adoption of a law on
violence against women, which was being discussed in Parliament at the time of writing. In
the area of political participation, a 2016 amendment to the electoral law implanted the
constitutional principle of political parity into law. Applying to municipal and regional
elections, the law included “vertical and horizontal gender parity”, guaranteeing a 50/50
split and alternation to ensure leadership positions for women. Elections scheduled to be
held in 2017 thus open the way for a massive entry of women into local politics, creating
huge potential for social transformation if well supported and sustained.
Key lessons
82. The active participation of citizens and women’s organizations in the process of
democratization and constitution drafting are key to the adoption of a progressive, rights-
based constitutional framework that creates an enabling legal environment for women’s
human rights implementation.
83. Robust and detailed constitutional gender equality protections based on international
human rights standards are essential for a strong and enforceable domestic legal framework,
and the active intervention of human rights organizations at the request of civil society can
contribute to achieving the gender equality goal.
(b) Progressive and participatory application of the law
Conflict, displacement and women’s human rights
84. Longstanding internal armed conflict in one country in the Latin America Region
has displaced more than 6 million people internally. Half of those are women, who have
suffered a traumatic change in gender roles, family structure and socioeconomic and
cultural standing, deepening gender and social inequalities and increasing risk of violence
and gender-based discrimination. While many challenges persist, the situation faced by
displaced women has improved over the past decade, largely owing to three ground-
breaking decisions of the Constitutional Court, shaped by widespread citizen and civil
society organization mobilization and implementation efforts.
85. For many years, internally displaced people and civil society organizations had
demanded protection measures from the Government without receiving an appropriate
response. This had prompted hundreds of displaced persons to invoke the protection of the
judiciary through the judicial remedy known as a tutela: a constitutionally established
judicial action that citizens can bring before any judge to ensure the effective exercise of
their human rights. By 2004, tribunals had received tutelas submitted by 1,150 displaced
families, accumulated in a dossier by the Constitutional Court that led to a judgment
declaring that the humanitarian emergency caused by forced displacement had created an
unconstitutional state of affairs characterized by massive human rights violations associated
with systemic failures in State assistance to displaced persons. Accordingly, the Court
ordered the Government to adopt structural measures, a measure that has spawned a lengthy
implementation process.
86. The Constitutional Court used its power to assess implementation of its own
judgment, issuing two further orders on the rights of displaced women. In 2008, the Court
handed down a decision that was considered a global pioneer in the treatment of sexual
violence during internal armed conflict. It identified 10 risks that forcibly displaced women
faced, including extreme risk of sexual violence, and 18 gender facets of displacement,
including patterns of discrimination and violence. Accordingly, the Court ordered the
Government to create and implement 13 programmes with a gender-sensitive approach,
including violence prevention, the right to health and education and access to land, justice
and reparations. The Court also took an intersectoral approach, highlighting heightened
risks faced by girls, indigenous, black and community women leaders, and women with
disabilities. The Court ordered the allocation of sufficient resources to guarantee
implementation of the programmes, refusing to recognize lack of budget as valid
justification for non-compliance.
87. In 2015, the Court issued an order declaring the persistence of failures in the
assistance, protection and access to justice for women victims of sexual violence. That
decision consolidated the constitutional framework to address the gendered impact of
armed conflict on the forced displacement of women in the country. That protection
framework — effectively transforming a government response to forced displacement using
a gender perspective — is a pioneering example globally. That extraordinary achievement
was partly due to the longstanding efforts by Latin American women’s movements to
strengthen the capacities of the constitutional courts in the field of women’s rights.
88. The active involvement of internally displaced women and civil society
organizations was essential throughout the process. Displaced women brought hundreds of
tutelas before tribunals to demand their rights and participated in public hearings convened
by the Constitutional Court or civil society organizations sharing their experiences and
perspectives. The Court’s decisions were informed by formal submissions by such
organizations, presenting experiences of women and girls forcibly displaced around the
country.
89. Women and civil society organizations responded to the Constitutional Court’s
request to participate in the design and implementation of the decisions. This resulted in the
collective development of indicators to monitor the 2004 order and the establishment of a
working group to monitor compliance with the orders, which was essential in assessing the
implementation of the decisions and in providing technical assistance for the
implementation of government programmes. Civil society organizations also operated
numerous programmes that provided humanitarian, legal and psychosocial support to
displaced women and their families. Those organizations also used international human
rights mechanisms to keep a spotlight on displaced women, and carried the topic into recent
peace negotiation processes. The 2016 peace agreement addressed many of the demands in
the three decisions, contributing to their sustainability.
90. Despite this extraordinary protection framework, implementation has faced
challenges. Women victims of sexual violence still faced barriers to filing reports and
receiving adequate care and protection, particularly in remote areas. There was still
heightened violence against displaced women linked to the illegal exploitation of mining
resources or on the basis of their sexual orientation. Continued efforts were needed to
ensure ongoing progress in a complex and dynamic context.
Key lessons
91. The presence of a solid constitutional court and an effective judicial remedy that
enables citizens to demand their constitutional rights without undue cost or burden creates
an enabling legal environment for addressing women’s human rights violations.
92. Active participation of women rights holders and autonomous women’s
organizations in the development, monitoring, assessment and implementation of judicial
decisions and public policies is essential to ensuring responsivity and impact.
(c) Together for justice protocol
93. In one State in the Western Europe and others group, indigenous women and girls
continued to be the target of racially motivated sexual and gender-based violence that began
with colonization, as affirmed in a 2015 inquiry report by the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women, in which the Committee noted grave and systemic
violations of indigenous women’s rights, exacerbated by entrenched discrimination that
impeded access to justice. In a rural, predominantly indigenous region of the State, a series
of high-profile cases, including the acquittal of federal police officers for sexual assault and
the death of an indigenous man in police custody, had led to the mobilization of civil
society organizations and public outcry, precipitating a government review of the police
force in 2010. Local women’s organizations lobbied for inclusion in order to push for an
improved response by the justice system to violence against women.
94. In that context, an indigenous women’s organization in a small community initiated
a protocol with the local federal police force that mandated: ongoing engagement, including
police training and capacity-building, to address the interrelated phenomena of violence
directed towards indigenous women and lack of due diligence in investigating crimes; open
dialogue sessions to promote cultural awareness; and community-police feedback and
knowledge-sharing sessions, during which information on the justice system and
community rights would be offered.
95. Project reviews and research have showed a profound impact on police-community
relations, with open dialogue and collaboration promoting enhanced understanding and
cooperation on issues of concern. The civil society organization has reported attitudinal and
behavioural shifts that have exceeded their expectations. The police have developed a better
understanding of the physical security issues that women in the community face, and have
helped to increase access to relevant domestic violence and sexual assault resources,
including shelters.
96. The protocol is reviewed and adjusted annually by both parties to take into account
challenges and shifting needs, ensuring ongoing responsivity to community concerns.
Successes of the project have been shared with other women’s organizations, and a similar
protocol has been subsequently adopted with the federal police force in the largest city in
the region. Discussions are under way in other indigenous communities to press for similar
protocols.
97. The bottom-up approach of the practice, which was developed at the impetus of
women’s organizations — while demonstrative of the innovative means used by the
community to address the structural reality of the situation of violence and discrimination in
which they live — has raised the question as to why grave and well-documented human
rights violations have not been addressed on a systematic or institutional level within the
federal police and Government. Political will to support, expand and institutionalize this
good practice is required for its replication and sustainability. In all post- and ongoing
colonial contexts, the disproportionate and intersectional discrimination faced by
indigenous women, often aided and abetted by legal systems, must be systematically
addressed by State duty holders.
Key lessons
98. Legal frameworks and partnership protocols that formalize the collaboration and
participation of citizen or civil society organizations or autonomous women’s rights
organizations in developing, monitoring and implementing the law, can help to address
power imbalances on the basis of historical discrimination and can lead to meaningful
change.
99. Measures involving groups of women who experience intersectional discrimination,
such as indigenous women, must be developed in accordance with an intersectional,
gender-sensitive human rights perspective and engage with women as stakeholders.
100. Financial and institutional support for promising and good practices must be
maintained to ensure ongoing impact of results.
III. Conclusions and recommendations
A. Conclusions
101. Good practices in the eradication of discrimination against women in law and
practice comprise a complex, multifaceted endeavour involving a wide range of
interconnected rights. A good practice cannot be understood in isolation from its
context and other complementary measures undertaken to promote substantive
equality. The living-law approach renders visible the wide range of factors and actors
involved in the process of good practice development. Each good practice case study
explored in the present report has contributed to key lessons learned that are both
specific to the case and that contain transferable principles that inform the present
conclusions. These lessons learned also reinforce the conclusions reached by the
Working Group on the basis of regional and global research in its thematic reports
and various country visits.
102. The Working Group’s assessment of good practices in eliminating
discrimination against women reaffirms the imperative that international human
rights standards must be incorporated into national law and laws that contradict
those principles must be repealed or modified, without exceptions based on cultural
grounds, including cultural and customary grounds. Constitutional provisions that
support gender equality create the foundation from which women’s rights can most
comprehensively be supported throughout the legal system. States must also take
measures to ensure that international and constitutional standards for women’s
equality are infused at all levels of the legal framework, especially in federated and
pluralistic legal systems.
103. To ensure that laws facilitate good practices in the elimination of
discrimination and women’s empowerment, a systematic gender analysis of the law
and its potential impacts, as well as outcomes, is imperative. Gender analysis of
existing and draft laws through the input of diverse stakeholders and the sharing of
good practices must be undertaken comprehensively and regularly. This requires
capacity-building on a rights-based gender analysis for duty holders in all spheres and
meaningful collaboration with an autonomous civil society that includes women’s
organizations and legal experts on women’s rights. In addition, it requires ongoing
independent monitoring and research by national human rights institutions, treaty
bodies, special procedure mandate holders, scholars and other experts.
104. Changing the law to meet the State obligation to respect and protect women’s
human rights are key steps, but investigations show that fulfilling rights remains the
most challenging facet of this triad. The fulfilment of women’s human rights requires
substantive shifts in deeply entrenched social and cultural norms that reinforce
gender stereotypes and perpetuate women’s subordination. As the Working Group
has emphasized, the State must act as an agent of change as regards to women’s place
in cultural and family life. The fulfilment of progressive legal frameworks requires
strong political will, supported by appropriate resources, and attendant measures
focused on attitudinal and behavioural change that cultivate an environment in which
good practices can thrive. Change must be transferred from the normative level into
all sectors of society so that duty and rights holders alike are able to internalize the
shifts required to support human rights implementation.
105. Among the key challenges in eliminating discrimination against women in law
and practice is the question of sustainability in the efforts and impacts of changing
laws. Local and global political and ideological landscapes are ever-shifting and
resources are limited and insecure.
106. The developmental process of a good practice over longer periods of time
means that political shifts in national or international governance can adversely affect
sustainability.
107. A key area of concern to the Working Group is the profound level of backlash
against women’s human rights gains, which is on the rise both within States and in
international spheres. In a climate of rising populism, xenophobia and
fundamentalisms, long-established women’s human rights norms are being
undermined, heightening the fragility of good practices in this context. In addition, a
concurrent attack on women’s organizations, women’s human rights defenders and
civil society movements — including feminist, environmental and human rights
movements — creates an atmosphere in which these key actors are criminalized, de-
funded and even killed, making the question of good practices moot. The Working
Group emphasizes the importance of maintaining the autonomy of local and national
movements and other civil society actors — including national human rights
institutions, public interest lawyers and scholars — as an essential means of protecting
and sustaining good practices. Backlashes within intergovernmental forums, as well as
at the national level, must be challenged head-on by the international community.
108. Resource allocation to support the progressive implementation of women’s
human rights is part of State obligation. States must undertake a process of gender
budgeting to ensure that their legal and policy commitments bear results. Key limiting
factors of the good practices identified were insufficient funds, disproportionate
burden of implementation on non-government actors and dependence on large-scale
or single donor international funding resources. While involvement of autonomous
women’s organizations has been seen as essential in the implementation of rights, the
relationship between State and non-State actors should involve complementary
efforts. Even States with limited resources make key decisions that support the
implementation of rights when political will is present to do so. Budget allocation,
whether originating from the State or a donor, must take into account the longitudinal
nature of change to ensure that promising practices are not arrested before they can
fully come into fruition.
B. Recommendations
1. General recommendations
109. There are multiple entry points to change the law and ensure effective
implementation of laws guaranteeing women’s right to equality, including through the
initiative of women rights holders and autonomous women’s organizations in civil
society. The Working Group recommends that States:
(a) Take every measure to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its Optional Protocol, withdraw
reservations thereto, incorporate its provisions into national constitutions and all
hierarchies of domestic law, and actively seek to implement recommendations made
by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Working
Group and other relevant human rights mechanisms in view of improving the
realization of women’s human rights;
(b) Repeal all laws that directly discriminate against women, and review all
new and existing legislation through a rights-based, gender-sensitive lens, involving
independent experts, including autonomous women’s organizations;
(c) Improve the knowledge-base on good practices by providing the ways
and means to support initiatives that apply a living-law approach to evaluating
outcomes and impact of laws, and record detailed results for the sharing of promising
and good practices.
2. Specific recommendations
Social change
110. The cultivation of a culture of human rights is needed for social change and
requires specific measures that draw from the richness and complexity of particular
contexts and histories, and that involve all sectors of society, including autonomous
women’s movements. As exemplified by the cases in the present report, good practices
result from sustained processes that benefit from the dynamic interaction brought by
a diverse range of actors and involve responsivity to changing situations in order to
ensure ongoing fulfilment of equal rights.
111. The Working Group recommends that States:
(a) Invest in long-term and multi-dimensional strategies to promote social
change, including extensive training, educational and awareness-raising measures to
promote a culture of human rights among right and duty holders alike;
(b) Ensure the active participation of women of all sectors of society in
monitoring and implementing human rights.
Sustainability
112. It is essential to ensure that a robust constitutional and legal framework is in
place to support long-term rights implementation and to weather challenges that may
come from regressive political or ideological forces that threaten to undermine
progress. The Working Group recommends that States:
(a) Recognize the crucial role of autonomous women’s organizing in the
development of good practices, and endeavour to create a legal, policy and budgetary
framework to support autonomous civil society organizations, women’s movements,
and citizen participation in legal development, reform and implementation;
(b) Apply the good practices framework for the creation and maintenance of
a safe and enabling environment for civil society developed in the report of the High
Commissioner (A/HRC/32/20), with a gender-sensitive lens that takes into account the
unique position and challenges faced by women’s human rights defenders;
(c) Prioritize the allocation of funds, both internationally and domestically,
to support active and sustained measures to promote good practices in the eradication
of discrimination and the promotion of women’s empowerment.