Launch of the Inter-Regional Report on Gender Equality and Political Empowerment of Women

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), together with the Community of Democracies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will launch the Inter-Regional Report on Gender Equality and Political Empowerment of Women on 5 December 2017, in Brussels, Belgium.

Gender Equality and the Political Empowerment of Women are key elements for the consolidation of sustainable democracies worldwide, and global and regional organizations play a key role in the development of legal and policy frameworks, as well as in the design of effective action plans that incorporate inputs from key stakeholders, to better support their membership in the advancement of the gender-equality agenda at the global, regional, national and global levels.

This report highlights the role of regional organizations in supporting their membership on the operationalization and follow-up of key instruments such as, among others, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women; and, more recently, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Sustainable Development Goals, which has the overall objective within Goal 5 to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

This publication has the aim of gathering and analyzing the main instruments that are currently in place at the global and regional levels, highlighting the challenges, opportunities and successes that each organization has encounter in the implementation within their respective regions. This report also offers policy recommendations based on the overall analysis at the institutional level, but also recommendations that resulted from a multidimensional regional consultation process that gathered governments, civil society organizations, specialized agencies, experts and citizens.

International IDEA, jointly with the partner organizations, proposes this report as an instrument to inform policymakers and relevant actors in the field on what is the current situation of gender equality, what has been done in terms of the political empowerment of women, and what is expected from the global community in order to successfully advance and achieve Goal 5 by 2030, and ultimately guarantee democratic, inclusive, safe and stable societies worldwide.

This initiative has been developed as part of the Inter-Regional Dialogue on Democracy (IRDD) of International IDEA, which is a unique platform that gathers the main regional organizations to discuss issues related to democracy, exchange best practices and develop synergies for further cooperation. Currently, member of the IRDD are the African Union Commission, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the League of Arab States, the Organization of American States, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. The Community of Democracies and the United Nations are global partners of the IRDD.

The production and the launch of this publication is made possible, thanks to a generous contribution from the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) of the European Commission.