COMMUNITY

Last week GQUAL sent contributions to the process initiated by the HRC President to draft “Methods of Work of the Consultative Group (CG) of the Human Rights Council”. The CG has the important role of proposing candidates for the Special Procedures and GQUAL highlighted the need to incorporate gender parity. You can read the letter here.

This type of communication stems from several years of work with the GC. Since 2017, GQUAL has written to the CG expressing our concern regarding the lack of gender parity in the Special Procedures and has requested the adoption of Gender Parity Guidelines. As of today, 11 mandates have never been held by a woman, including the SR on torture; the SR on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-recurrence, and the SR on the right to development, among others.

Without adequate gender balance, the Special Procedures fail to be truly representative and to adequately reflect the values of equality and non-discrimination. The CG, the HRC and States should take measures, including adopting Gender Parity Guidelines, to incorporate gender parity and alternation as a specific criteria in the selection process.