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power imbalances on the basis of historical discrimination and can lead to meaningful
change.
99.
Measures involving groups of women who experience intersectional discrimination,
such as indigenous women, must be developed in accordance with an intersectional,
gender-sensitive human rights perspective and engage with women as stakeholders.
100. Financial and institutional support for promising and good practices must be
maintained to ensure ongoing impact of results.
III. Conclusions and recommendations
A.
Conclusions
101. Good practices in the eradication of discrimination against women in law and
practice comprise a complex, multifaceted endeavour involving a wide range of
interconnected rights. A good practice cannot be understood in isolation from its
context and other complementary measures undertaken to promote substantive
equality. The living-law approach renders visible the wide range of factors and actors
involved in the process of good practice development. Each good practice case study
explored in the present report has contributed to key lessons learned that are both
specific to the case and that contain transferable principles that inform the present
conclusions. These lessons learned also reinforce the conclusions reached by the
Working Group on the basis of regional and global research in its thematic reports
and various country visits.
102. The Working Group’s assessment of good practices in eliminating
discrimination against women reaffirms the imperative that international human
rights standards must be incorporated into national law and laws that contradict
those principles must be repealed or modified, without exceptions based on cultural
grounds, including cultural and customary grounds. Constitutional provisions that
support gender equality create the foundation from which women’s rights can most
comprehensively be supported throughout the legal system. States must also take
measures to ensure that international and constitutional standards for women’s
equality are infused at all levels of the legal framework, especially in federated and
pluralistic legal systems.
103. To ensure that laws facilitate good practices in the elimination of
discrimination and women’s empowerment, a systematic gender analysis of the law
and its potential impacts, as well as outcomes, is imperative. Gender analysis of
existing and draft laws through the input of diverse stakeholders and the sharing of
good practices must be undertaken comprehensively and regularly. This requires
capacity-building on a rights-based gender analysis for duty holders in all spheres and
meaningful collaboration with an autonomous civil society that includes women’s
organizations and legal experts on women’s rights. In addition, it requires ongoing
independent monitoring and research by national human rights institutions, treaty
bodies, special procedure mandate holders, scholars and other experts.
104. Changing the law to meet the State obligation to respect and protect women’s
human rights are key steps, but investigations show that fulfilling rights remains the
most challenging facet of this triad. The fulfilment of women’s human rights requires
substantive shifts in deeply entrenched social and cultural norms that reinforce
gender stereotypes and perpetuate women’s subordination. As the Working Group
has emphasized, the State must act as an agent of change as regards to women’s place
in cultural and family life. The fulfilment of progressive legal frameworks requires
strong political will, supported by appropriate resources, and attendant measures
focused on attitudinal and behavioural change that cultivate an environment in which
good practices can thrive. Change must be transferred from the normative level into
all sectors of society so that duty and rights holders alike are able to internalize the
shifts required to support human rights implementation.
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