A/HRC/35/29
such organizations will be maintained. Challenges include ensuring ongoing sources of
funding for the project and decreasing reliance on overseas funding.
Key lessons
72.
A strong human rights-based constitutional framework for equality, a progressive
judiciary, an active autonomous civil society and an environment conducive to public
interest litigation are important complementary factors in the development of good
practices.
73.
Impact is attained through follow-up measures and sustained action, by both State
and non-State actors. Progressive court decisions must be widely disseminated and
popularized among duty holders and rights holders alike to have broader structural impact.
5.
Civil society and autonomous women’s organizing
74.
Women’s participation and self-determination in the development and application of
the laws that shape the parameters of their lives is a human right. Supporting the existence
of and collaborative engagement with autonomous women’s movements is a core
component of State obligation to end discrimination against women. The case studies
investigated for the present report demonstrate the centrality of an active citizenry,
autonomous women’s movements and civil society organizations with progressive
frameworks that align with women’s human rights standards as key factors in achieving
positive changes in the development and application of the law.
75.
The Working Group considers that the study of the ways and means by which those
movements engage with processes of change involving the law merits in-depth
consideration. Such investigation will reveal specific ways that States can create an
ameliorating environment for and work collaboratively with autonomous women’s
movements towards eliminating discrimination against women in law and in practice.
76.
The three case studies below exemplify the crucial role of women’s autonomous
organizing in the interrelated developmental processes of good practices as articulated in
the living-law approach of the present report.
(a)
Political and constitutional reform
Women’s participation in democratic movements and constitution-building
77.
The following case study, originating in a country of the Middle East and North
Africa Region, highlights the central role of women’s autonomous organizing in promoting
political and legal changes to eradicate discrimination against women and to promote
substantive equality. The country had a long history of Government-led reform promoting
gender equality in the law. This included broad legal reforms granting women autonomy
and self-determination in public and family life, with progressive provisions in terms of
sexual and reproductive rights. Women’s organizations had previously existed, but the
political climate did not support autonomy. Growing authoritarianism in the regime and the
prevalence of discriminatory attitudes had diminished the transformation of women’s
traditional roles and the attainment of substantive equality. In 2011, a political revolution
led by social movements brought about the downfall of the Government and led to the
democratization of the State.
78.
Women’s organizations played an important role in achieving the goals of the
revolution and continued to play an active role in the emergence of a new vision for gender
equality. The post-revolution period generated significant public debate during the drafting
of a new constitution. Women’s movements worked to keep women on the agenda,
introducing a draft feminist constitution early in 2012 that they were invited to present to
the National Constituent Assembly. They continued to advocate and mobilize society to
oppose regressive elements, maintaining pressure for strong gender equality provisions. In
2012, women successfully organized against article 2.28 of the draft constitution, which
had established the complementarity of men and women, rather than the right to equality.
The women’s movements, with the assistance of the Working Group through its
communications and a country visit, brought about a revision of the draft constitution. That
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