CEDAW/C/GC/40 45. The Committee recommends that States parties: (a) Adopt or strengthen parity laws, for example, by alternating between women and men candidates in elections, via vertical and horizontal parity lists, and rejecting non-compliant lists; (b) Conduct awareness-raising to reject excuses that not enough women are available or qualified to stand as candidates; (c) Ensure the integrity of elections and combat all forms of corruption and abuse of power; (d) Provide equitable financial and other support to women candidates, including spending caps and affordable advertising to ensure a level playing field in political campaigns; (e) Align voting age and age of eligibility to stand for election in order to encourage more and younger women to participate; (f) Recognize the legal capacity of women with disabilities to stand for election and provide reasonable accommodation. (c) Right to participate in the formulation and implementation of government policy 46. Women’s right to participate in the formulation and implementation of government policy is guaranteed under article 7 (b). This includes the responsibilities of the parliament, local and regional councils and other community decision -making bodies. Under article 11, States parties are required to reconcile conflicts between work and family life, and, in general recommendation No. 25 (2004), the Committee recommends that laws, policies and programmes consider aspects of women’s lives that may differ from those of men. Despite progress, women still hold only 27 per cent of seats in national parliaments 43 and constitute 35.5 per cent of elected members in local government. 44 They hold just 24.1 per cent of parliamentary speaker roles 45 and 18.9 per cent of chairs of parliamentary committees on defence, finance, foreign affairs and human rights. 46 They often account for less than 15 per cent of mayors and governors at the local and provincial levels. Few women serve as presidents and prime ministers, and only 23.3 per cent of cabinet ministers globally are women. 47 47. The Committee recommends that States parties: (a) Adopt parity laws for all elections and appointments; (b) Adopt rules to ensure parity in leadership positions in parliaments, local and regional councils and other community decision-making bodies; (c) Accommodate the family obligations of parliamentarians, government officials, local and regional council representatives and the staff of those office holders, including care-friendly working hours, childcare within the vicinity of the workplace, as well as proxy and remote voting possibilities; __________________ 43 44 45 46 47 20/29 Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Global and regional averages of women in national parliaments”, Parline database, available at https://data.ipu.org/women-averages (accessed on 25 October 2024). UN-Women, “Facts and figures: women’s leadership and political participation”, 2 October 2024, available at www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-andfigures. Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Women speakers of national parliaments”, Parline database, available at https://data.ipu.org/women-speakers (accessed on 25 October 2024). Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Women in parliament in 2023”, available at www.ipu.org/resources/ publications/reports/2024-03/women-in-parliament-2023. UN-Women, “Facts and figures: women’s leadership and political participation” . 24-20036