The Working Group will use the term of "good" or "promising" practices rather than "best" practices to take into account the complex contextual framework of practices located in the wide spectrum of bad to good practices. This builds on existing work on this issue by other special procedure mandate holders, which includes the preference towards using the terminology of "good practices". The Working Group seeks to look at good practices that have been transformative in relation to eliminating discrimination against women in law and in practice in different contexts and in the light of the different realities that women face.

[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;

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in its 2013 Plan of Action for Gender-sensitive Parliaments, has drawn attention to the need for gender sensitivity in the composition, structures, operations, methods and work of parliaments. In the plan, it noted that "gender-sensitive parliaments remove the barriers to women's full participation and offer a positive example or model to society at large" (p. 8). The Working Group considers the IPU plan of action to be adaptable for other public and political institutions in which women's equal representation must be secured.

The election and appointment of women to public and political office is a necessary condition for equality in public and political life, but the number of women in office is insufficient for advancing gender equality in society. Evidence shows that women who are appointed or elected to public office do not necessarily promote gender-equality agendas. Policy outcomes that advance substantive equality between men and women involve larger processes of public debate, alliance-building across political divides, and activism by autonomous women's movements based on universal standards of equality, non-discrimination, human rights and inclusive democracy.

Women's participation in political and public life remains dynamic, multifaceted, and resilient, including in gaining access to power through alternative structures, as recognized in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Even as the glass ceiling in formal political institutions stays mostly intact, women actively open new spaces for discourse, build networks across long-standing divides and create new communities of engagement. Through the autonomous movements they build at the local to global levels, women's political engagements develop across formal administrative boundaries and are transnational in reach based on the universality of women's right to equality, challenging unequal power relations, demanding accountability, defending rights and achievements, and advocating for systemic and cultural change in societies, institutions and States. Women's autonomous civil society organizations are crucial to women's participation in public and political life.

Women's rights advocates engage actively in different normative regimes, including religious communities and indigenous or customary groups. They do so, among others, by initiating hermeneutic projects within their respective religions. In their cultural communities, women express their opinions on politics also through the arts, including writings, music and plays, and their works have been attacked, criminalized and condemned by State and non-State actors. In certain contexts, economically independent women playing leadership roles are stigmatized and attacked as witches. Lesbian, bisexual and transgender women who defend their human rights are vulnerable to attacks on their civil rights and personhood where there is a climate of intolerance arising from their perceived challenge to established norms of gender identity, gender roles and sexuality.

The new space and opportunities created by revolutionary developments in ICTs have enabled women to initiate or enhance their participation in political and public life. Women who are confined in private homes have used ICTs as a means to break out of their isolation and take part in collective action. Women who live under threat of attack because of their sexual orientation have found safety in the anonymity of the Internet, which allows them to freely speak out, establish virtual communities and participate in public debates. During moments of political unrest, women have utilized SMS, micro-blogging and social networking to provide "bodyguard" protection to each other on the ground.

The democratic deficit undermines women's substantive participation in political and public life. Patronage politics, corruption, and undemocratic local government reduce women's effectiveness in the political arena, as they prevent transparency and accountability in decision-making and in the distribution of resources. Gender discriminatory policies and regulations have been applied by autonomous local governments even when national or federal laws mandate gender equality. Empowering women's participation in political and public life from the community level up helps build a culture of accountability, as it broadens the constituency for democratic decision-making, and is crucial to the effective application of good governance at all levels.

Special measures, including quotas for women and other temporary measures, as required under article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention and general recommendations No. 23 (1997) and No. 25 (2004) of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, are necessary to achieve equality between men and women in political and public life, in order to contend with the underlying structural disadvantaging of women. The most significant increase in the numbers of women in national parliaments over the years has occurred in countries where special measures, such as gender quotas, have been effectively constructed and implemented. The use of quotas to advance women's political representation and participation has increased in the past three decades and produced significant results when properly adapted to specific electoral and political systems.

Quotas introduced at the local level are rare but important for equality outcomes on the ground. In one country in South Asia, for example, a constitutional amendment mandated the representation of women, reserving one third of the seats within each council and women taking one third of the leadership positions as head. Research has shown that after a decade of implementation, women are more likely to stand for, and win, elected positions in councils. The requirement of female leadership changes voter attitudes and improves perceptions of female leadership effectiveness.

Effective political participation of women requires not only admission to political institutions but also integration into their decision-making forums. Women's full participation requires concerted action to overcome the de facto segregation of women's political participation in sectors which are stereotypically associated with women's gender roles. It requires that women be integrated into positions with decision-making power across the spectrum of issues dealt with by the institutions to which they have been elected or appointed. During political transitions, the same applies to all transitional authorities and mechanisms.

Poverty and social exclusion, including women's high levels of illiteracy and poor health, lock women into a persistent state of dependence and deprivation and often make long-term participation in political and public life an unviable option. Programmes addressing poverty and social exclusion and containing strong empowerment components for marginalized women, including those who face multiple discrimination, enhance the opportunity and capacity for these particular women to participate meaningfully in political and public life.

For women's participation in political and public life to be meaningful it must be on equal footing with that of men, covering all aspects of political and public life, and effective in achieving substantive outcomes on equality between men and women in all fields of life. Women's economic independence and the economic viability of their enterprises and collective actions are crucial, and the conditions necessary for this to be achievable is distinct for differently located women, defined by the unique intersections of multiple forms of discrimination experienced by them. Political transitions do not always lead to inclusive democracy and long-lasting peace, and require the effectiveness of autonomous women's movements to ground universal standards of human rights in political and public life.

Women's capacity for equal participation in all aspects of political and public life depends on a coherent set of social and economic policies directed at the family, workplace and marketplace. It also requires their capacity to engage in complex issues such as peace and security, state-building, and extreme poverty and all forms of social exclusion. Positive action is needed to empower women to produce knowledge and engage actively and creatively in these fields. As women act collectively to overcome the structural barriers they face, sustainable access of these groups or communities to adequate resources, including financial, is critical.

There is a related problem of segregation in the formal labour market, with women clustered in "pink collar", largely service sector, jobs with inferior working conditions, less job security and lower pay. In high-income countries, more than 85 per cent of employed women work in the service sector, primarily in education and health. In order to address wage gaps resulting from occupational segregation, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and ILO Conventions require equal pay for equal work or for work of equal value, comparable in skill, responsibility, effort and working conditions. The ILO guide to gender-neutral job evaluation provides an objective evaluation system. The ILO also recommends that policies to combat occupational segregation also encourage men to enter occupations traditionally associated with women.

Women's reproductive functions include pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. These are the biological functions of maternity. In accordance with the normative framework created by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the ILO Conventions, in some States, there are provisions, statutory or judicial, prohibiting discrimination during pregnancy and protecting women against dismissal for a period of months or even years after they give birth. Nevertheless, there has been a rise in complaints of pregnancy discrimination in a number of countries, and effective measures are required to guarantee women's employment security during pregnancy and after birth.

The frameworks of the ILO and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women impose an obligation on States parties to provide paid maternity leave to employed women, set by the ILO at a minimum of 14 weeks with a recommended 18 weeks, and daily breaks for breastfeeding. The provision of maternity leave has become almost universal: 51 per cent of countries provide maternity leave of at least 14 weeks; 20 per cent of 18 weeks or more; 35 per cent of 12-13 weeks of leave. Only 14 per cent of countries provide less than 12 weeks.

Model examples of constitutional design can be found in recent constitutions in different regions. Since 1981, in many countries in the Western region, constitutions have been amended to include provisions permitting the use of temporary special measures to promote the participation of women in political and public life. One recently established constitution in the Maghreb confers systematically, throughout its provisions, constitutional rights expressly on women as well as men, and seeks to ensure parity between them; in Latin America and the Caribbean there is a constitution which contains approximately 34 references to the rights of women, including the right to political participation.

The inclusion of any clause in the constitution that derogates from the guarantee of gender equality, by deferring to contradictory precepts in other orders of justice such as traditional and religious principles, undermines the equality standards of international human rights law. Similarly, constitutions that have an override clause, which excludes plural legal systems, religious or customary courts or alternative dispute settlement procedures from the obligation to respect the gender equality guarantee, violate the equality standards of the Convention. Many of the countries that have derogation or exclusion clauses in their constitutions have entered reservations to the human rights treaties, and these reservations have been addressed within the concluding observations of the treaty bodies, which have required their removal.

Sharing of care responsibilities within the household should remain a matter of choice for women and men. For any real choice to be possible, paid care leave must be available to both parents. The Nordic countries were the first to introduce an independent paternity leave in order to overcome stereotypes and barriers to men sharing childcare functions. Such provisions are becoming more common around the world, with increased awareness of men's parenting roles and their need to reconcile work and family life. Paternity leave is usually much shorter than maternity leave and more often unpaid. Some countries have introduced more gender-neutral parental leave options, and recent best practice in one Nordic country provides symmetry in childcare leave, with five months for each parent individually and two months that can be allocated according to parental choice.

Good practices include gender-specific compensatory measures such as continuing pension contributions during maternity and childcare leaves, unisex calculation of benefits, equalizing mandatory retirement age and mandatory joint annuities. All these measures, with quite wide margins of difference in the extent of their generosity and with some caveats as to the categories of women who do not benefit from each of these measures, have some marginal impact in reducing the pension gap. Of these gender-specific measures, the only one that almost closes the gender pension gap is mandatory joint annuities. This suggests that the way to rectify women's relative poverty in old age is through mandating joint annuities with their husbands. However, this does not solve the problem for single or divorced women. Furthermore, it leaves the problem of engineering a system that is equitable for traditional dependent marriages and yet can still incentivize economically independent women.

Gender-based violence against women, including state violation of women's bodily integrity and autonomy, violence in the public arena, violence in workplaces and educational institutions, and domestic violence and economic violence by intimate partners, can severely impact and restrict women's economic and social potential throughout their life cycle, including their access to education, freedom of movement and employment. In economic and social institutions, women are exposed to sexual harassment, including unwelcome sexual behaviour, remarks, and pornographic images and demands, whether by words or actions. Such conduct is threatening and humiliating.

Many countries prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace, whether it is quid pro quo (extorting sexual cooperation by threat of job-related consequences) or creating a hostile environment, and impose accountability on the employer. Out of 100 countries surveyed, 78 have laws addressing sexual harassment in the workplace, and of these, 52 criminalize such conduct. The legal prohibition of sexual harassment has been based, variously, on the concepts of discrimination against women and of violation of women's human dignity, and good practice is to apply a "double approach" involving both concepts.

In addition, women are exposed to sexual harassment in the public arena, including service institutions, public transport, "street harassment," cyberbullying and pornographic advertising, producing a fear factor that severely curtails their freedom of movement and occupation. However, only 8 out of 100 States have enacted laws prohibiting sexual harassment in public places. Good practice includes prohibition of sexual harassment in the provision of services. It entails municipal responsibility for policing, lighting and introducing surveillance cameras in public spaces.

School-related gender-based violence takes different forms, with girls in some countries violently targeted for attending school, while in other countries, they are subject in school to sexual violence or harassment, including by teachers. Such violence results in trauma, stigmatization and sometimes pregnancy, and severely curtails girls' educational opportunities. In many States, sexual intercourse with a minor is considered rape, as minors are not capable of consent, but only 32 out of 100 States have specific provisions on sexual harassment at schools. Examples of good practices by some States include introducing confidential school reporting mechanisms, capacity-building for police, child-friendly courts, a public register of sexual offenders and barring sexual offenders from teaching.

The Working Group calls on States to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and all relevant international human rights treaties and ILO Conventions which guarantee women's economic and social rights. It calls upon them to implement the obligations therein, including by ratifying the Optional Protocols of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, by introducing the required constitutional and legislative guarantees, and by adopting a transformative agenda which will produce an outcome of de facto equality for women in their economic and social lives.

[The Working Group recommends that States:] Take measures to reduce and reconstruct informal work; to reduce informal work, States should increase job opportunities for women in formal employment, especially in the public sector, and with targeted programmes for women's training, professionalization reskilling and unemployment programmes. To reconstruct, they should redefine the scope of protective labour law, introduce pro rata pay and social security benefits for part-time or casual work, and extend paid maternity leave and care rights to workers in both the formal and informal sectors;

The legal rights of women and girls to equality and non-discrimination in cultural and family life, established in 1948 by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by international human rights law, are often restricted in national laws and in practice, including in cultural practice. The Working Group emphasizes that, in accordance with international human rights law, States have an obligation to adopt appropriate measures with a view to eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and girls in laws, cultural practices and the family, whether perpetrated by State agents or private actors.

Substantive equality in the area of health and safety requires differential treatment. Throughout their life cycle from childhood to old age, women have health needs and vulnerabilities that are distinctively different from those of men. Women have specific biological functions, are exposed to health problems that affect only women, are victims of pervasive gender-based violence and, statistically speaking, live longer than men, resulting in their greater need to access health services frequently and into older age. Hence, women and girls experience the negative effects of insufficiencies in health-care services more intensively than men.

Women face a disproportionate risk of being subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment in health-care facilities, especially during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period. Furthermore, they are especially vulnerable to degrading treatment in situations where they are deprived of liberty, including in migrant detention facilities or mental institutions. They are subjected to humiliating treatment within the health-care system because of their gender identity and sexual orientation, sometimes expressly in the name of morality or religion, as a way of punishing what is considered "immoral" behaviour.