A/HRC/20/28
19.
The Working Group intends to identify practices that have strengthened States’
efforts to achieve equality and to respect, protect and fulfil women’s human rights. The
Working Group will examine:
(a)
The extent to which States have met the obligation to respect women’s rights
to equality and to the exercise and fulfilment by women of human rights and fundamental
freedoms. This will involve surveying existing and newly introduced discriminatory laws
and practices. The Working Group will pay special attention to the direct or indirect
inclusion of discriminatory provisions in legislation or case law that apply discriminatory
interpretations of statutory, customary, religious or deontological regulations. The Working
Group will compile good practices in the elimination of laws and regulations that are both
directly and indirectly discriminatory to women. The examination of good practices for this
purpose would include constitutional amendments, judicial review, legislative reform,
litigation and case law, policy and institutional reform, independent human rights
monitoring, political action, and religious or cultural hermeneutic projects;
(b)
The extent to which States have met the obligation to protect women from
any act by private persons or entities which would impair women’s rights to equality and to
the exercise and fulfilment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. This will involve
identifying the success or failure of States with respect to eliminating all social, cultural,
economic and political practices that constitute discrimination against women, including by
establishing accessible and effective gender-responsive justice systems and human rights
complaint mechanisms that ensure women’s equal benefit and protection of the law. Where
courts based on customary or religious law are recognized, special attention will be given to
the steps taken by States to ensure compliance with international human rights standards,
including on fair trial. This will also involve identifying steps taken by States to enact
required equality guarantees in their constitutions and required equality provisions in
legislation or other appropriate measures, including but not limited to equal-employmentopportunity laws, prohibitions on trafficking, family laws, and sexual and domestic
violence legislation. An examination of good practices for this purpose would highlight the
processes which led to the effective protection of women’s human rights and basic
freedoms on an equal basis with men;
(c)
The extent to which States have met the obligation to fulfil women’s rights to
equality and to the exercise and fulfilment by women of human rights and fundamental
freedoms. This will involve the identification of the variety of measures and steps taken by
States to implement equality laws and to prevent the application of gender-neutral laws in a
way that has a discriminatory impact on women. Special attention will be given to
programmatic and institutional frameworks aimed at fulfilling the specific needs of women,
including through specialized national mechanisms and machineries on women’s human
rights, and through the thorough and consistent compilation of sex-disaggregated data. The
examination of good practices for this purpose would include temporary special measures,
measures for the accommodation of maternity, and measures to prevent, prosecute, punish,
and provide redress in relation to violations of women’s human rights, including through
transitional justice processes.
20.
The Working Group will review these core obligations as binding on States parties
to relevant international human rights treaties, covering all branches of the State (executive,
legislative and judicial) and other public or governmental authorities, at all levels (national,
regional and local).
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