Call to submit inputs for the report of the Advisory Committee on current levels of representation of women in human rights organs and mechanisms

On July 11, 2019, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution A/HRC/41/L.6 on the “Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls.” GQUAL, a global campaign to achieve gender parity in the composition of international tribunals and monitoring bodies, worked with the United Nations Working Group on Discrimination against Women (WG) and the Mission of Mexico in Geneva to develop language for this year’s Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution promoting gender balance in United Nations (UN) international bodies. GQUAL’s efforts were successfully translated in the Resolution which acknowledges for the first time that “women remain underrepresented … in United Nations bodies and mechanisms responsible for developing international human rights norms and standards and monitoring their implementation.”

Additionally, the Resolution calls upon States and encourages the UN and other international institutions to promote, inter alia, balanced gender representation in the membership of international bodies at all levels. In particular, the Resolution calls upon States to develop better procedures at the national level to take gender as a consideration for the appointment and election of candidates. Furthermore, it encourages States and the appropriate UN bodies, including the OHCHR, to deepen their efforts to promote women candidacies through the distribution of information on available vacancies, encouragement to women to put their names forward, and monitoring and reporting on progress in achieving balanced gender representation.

Furthermore, the Resolution instructs the HRC Advisory Committee to draft a report, in consultation with CEDAW and the WG, and including the input of States and other relevant stakeholders, to systematize good practices and recommendations for increasing gender representation in international bodies. As part of the first step towards the preparation of the report, the HRC Advisory Committee has posted a call for inputs and views, including a questionnaire on the issue for stakeholders to submit information.

The call for inputs and views, was released on September 12, 2019 and the deadline to submit is January 12, 2020.

Both the post and the questionnaire to facilitate the submission of inputs for the report are posted here.

Submissions and other information should be sent to:

Secretariat of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee

OHCHR – United Nations Office at Geneva

CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

E-mail: hrcadvisorycommittee@ohchr.org

Fax: +41 22 917 9011

The Resolution and the call for inputs and views by the HRC Advisory Committee provide a unique opportunity for civil society, academia and other interested parties, to submit information and proposals that contribute to improve selection procedures and to realize women’s right to equality in UN bodies. Also, please contact the GQUAL Campaign should you have an interest in supporting this report gqual@cejil.org

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