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Home Resources Promoting women’s political participation and gender equality
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Promoting women’s political participation and gender equality

ODIHR works to facilitate the exchange of experience and expertise between OSCE participating States and Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation in the areas of ensuring equal opportunity for participation of women in political and public life, building national mechanisms for the advancement of women and providing legislative assistance to support efforts in enhancing gender equality and combating domestic violence.

ODIHR assists OSCE participating States in implementing their commitments on gender equality and enhancing women’s political participation through policy dialogue and the exchange of good practices among government and civil society. To this end, ODIHR can facilitate the exchange of experience and expertise between OSCE participating States and Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation in the areas of ensuring equal opportunity for participation of women in political and public life, building national mechanisms for the advancement of women and providing legislative assistance to support efforts in enhancing gender equality and combating domestic violence.

OSCE/ODIHR Contribution to the Regional Workshop “Constitutions, Women and the Arab Spring”, Istanbul, 16-18 March 2012

Organized by the Central and Eastern European Network for Gender Issues in partnership with the Turkish non-governmental organization KADER and the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity, this event brought together women politicians and civil society representatives from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, the Western Balkans and the United Kingdom, to discuss the constitutional and legislative reform processes and the voluntary measures that can be introduced to enhance gender equality within political parties.

ODIHR shared its expertise on political party regulation, focusing on internal party democracy as a means to enhance gender equality. As a result of the workshop, participants expressed an interest in organizing a regional event gathering reform-minded political party representatives from North Africa to network further and develop joint advocacy strategies.

  • Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties
    This Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties aims at encouraging political party leaders, men and women alike, to support the integration of gender aspects into internal political party decision-making processes. It also seeks to develop the capacity of women politicians to advance their political careers. The key finding that has emerged during the development of this handbook is that internal party reform is critical to women’s advancement. A lack of internal party democracy and transparency, the absence of gender-sensitivity in candidate selection and outreach, as well as the failure to decentralize party decision-making processes, all inhibit women’s opportunities to advance as leaders within parties and as candidates for elected office. To this end, the handbook provides a valuable overview of voluntary measures that political parties can adopt to enhance gender equality within party structures, processes, policies and activities, as a means to provide both women and men equal opportunities to participate meaningfully in the political life of OSCE participating States.
    Guide / manual / handbook
    7 July 2014
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  • Gender Equality in Elected Office: A Six-Step Action Plan
    To provide an assessment of opportunities for enhancing women’s political participation across the OSCE region, this report sets out the general picture of women’s representation in OSCE participating States and reviews the impact of each of the institutional strategies discussed in the Six-Step Action Plan.
    Study / report
    9 September 2011
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  • Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
    This handbook offers a survey of trends, examples, questions for consideration and recommendations to guide national human rights institutions in strengthening their capacity and practical work on women’s rights and gender equality.
    Guide / manual / handbook
    4 December 2012
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  • Handbook for Monitoring Women's Participation in Elections
    The guidance provided in this handbook is intended to ensure that as each Election Observation Mission draws conclusions on the extent to which an election process meets OSCE commitments and reflects universal principles, it takes fully into account how the election process affects both women and men.
    Guide / manual / handbook
    13 July 2004
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