A/HRC/23/50 eligible for public office”, was in violation of the State’s Constitution and article 7 of the Convention.44 75. The most effective strategies for women’s political empowerment involve reforms to incorporate rules that guarantee women’s representation within political parties.45 Some 50 countries have adopted legislation on electoral quotas in order to ensure that a certain proportion of candidates for political office are women. Hundreds of political parties in another 20 countries have voluntarily adopted their own gender quotas.46 In some countries the quota system is established by the constitution. One constitution in the Latin American and Caribbean region includes the principle of parity in all policymaking mechanisms, including elections, ministries, the justice system and political parties, and stipulates that political parties’ “organization, structure and functioning shall be democratic and shall guarantee the rotation of power, accountability, and parity membership between women and men on their governing boards”.47 In the Maghreb, one new constitution mandates the establishment of a mechanism for parity (see A/HRC/20/28/Add.1). Women’s movements were intensely involved in these constitutional processes, illustrating the importance of activism to exert pressure for the creation of a constitutional framework that supports women’s right to representation. 76. The Working Group notes that good practices of States include a legislative, and preferably constitutional, requirement that political parties place women in realistic positions for election, apply quotas, guarantee the rotation of power, accountability and parity membership between women and men on their governing boards and condition the funding of political parties on their integration of women in realistic positions on their candidate lists. E. Eliminating discrimination in law 77. The obligation of States to advance women’s equality and empower women in public and political life requires legal measures at all levels: constitutional, legislative and judicial. 1. Constitutional guarantees 78. National constitutions define the framework for eliminating discrimination against women in law and practice and articulate the principles and ways by which historical power asymmetries are redressed.48 Constitutions provide important clarity on the relationship between distinct normative regimes which are adhered to and practiced de facto by different sections of society. A constitutional guarantee of equality for women, in line with international standards, most especially the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and regional standards, is essential in order to establish a universal imperative of equality for women on which the entire chain of justice within the State will rest. Increasingly, in different regions, women’s rights and non-discrimination clauses have been incorporated into new constitutions or are part of constitutional reform 44 45 46 47 48 See European Court of Human Rights, SGP v. Netherlands, Application No. 58369/10, decision of 10 July 2012. See UNDP and NDI, Empowering. Ibid., p. 22. Constitution of Ecuador (2008), art. 8. See also articles 65, 116, 176, and 434 of the Constitution, as cited in the background paper on Latin America and the Caribbean prepared for the Working Group. See Helen Irving, “Where have all the women gone? Gender and the literature on constitutional design”, Sidney Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10/50, May 2010. 17