![]() The IPU’s 2012 Plan of Action for Gender-sensitive Parliaments is a key policy document which presents a broad range of strategies that can be implemented by all parliaments, irrespective of the number of women members. For example, they can lead by example by becoming gender-sensitive institutions. The handbook underscores how parliaments can be drivers of change in eliminating discrimination. For example, in Maldives, for the first time, the Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights and Gender Committee was included in the November 2021 State delegation to the Committee to ensure a parliamentary angle and follow-up to the country report on progress. In other examples of good parliamentary practice, the handbook describes how parliaments can actively engage with the CEDAW Committee. This specific budget, which focuses on the prevention, sanction and eradication of gender-based violence against women, is outlined in a dedicated annex of the federal public budget. For example, in Mexico, the General Law on Women’s Access to a Life Free of Violence was enacted in 2007, with a gender-sensitive public budget adopted the following year. The handbook contains a wealth of case studies of how parliaments are helping eliminate discrimination against women. It recommends that parliaments include all acts of sexual violence committed by State and non-State perpetrators into national legislation to ensure their criminalization, investigation, prosecution and punishment. ![]() The handbook details what actions parliaments can take to address this violence. This violence can include rape and other forms of sexual violence, which can sometimes be used a tactic of war, as well as trafficking, and child and/or forced marriages. The handbook focuses on particular themes where the Convention takes on particular relevance, including challenging contexts such as those arising from armed conflicts, political instability, climate change and health crises.įor example, crime and violations of the rights of women and girls normally escalate in conflict situations, especially gender-based violence against women. It introduces parliaments to the Convention and the work of the CEDAW Committee, a watchdog body made up of experts that monitors implementation and progress reported by countries as well as responding to complaints. The handbook demonstrates how parliaments can use the CEDAW Convention as a framework for advancing gender equality, and the human rights of women and girls. And the World Economic Forum has calculated that women globally earn around 37% less than men in similar roles and that progress on closing the gender pay gap is extremely slow. According to the World Bank, women and girls only hold 77% of the legal rights of men and boys. ![]() IPU data shows that the proportion of women in parliament, despite steady increases over the past few years, has stagnated at around 26%. Gender-based discrimination against women is widespread across the world. It also encourages parliamentarians to lead the way when it comes to promoting women’s rights. The new handbook is intended to help parliamentarians translate the Convention into concrete parliamentary action through law-making, budget allocation and parliamentary oversight of government actions. More than four decades after its adoption, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) remains an essential tool for achieving gender equality and protecting women’s rights in all walks of life – from the family and the classroom to executive boards and political leadership roles. Twenty years after the first edition, the IPU and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have published a new version of a handbook for parliamentarians on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol.
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