A/HRC/35/29 31. Good practice requires: (a) the removal of barriers, whether cultural, economic, institutional or religious, preventing women from having an equal opportunity to gain access to positions of power at all levels; (b) the elimination of disempowering stereotypes, misogyny and violence against women in public and private spheres; (c) parity for women in decision-making forums; (d) and gender-sensitive mainstreaming of policymaking processes, including budgeting. Quotas and supportive measures 32. The following case study was from the Asia region. Despite strong constitutional guarantees for “equal status of opportunity” and non-discrimination on multiple grounds, discrimination against women remained deeply entrenched. This resulted in women’s exclusion from political and public life, particularly in rural areas and among ethnic minorities and marginalized groups of women. In 1993, in an effort to address structural barriers to women’s participation in political and public life, the State had adopted a constitutional amendment mandating one-third reservations for women — including women from historically disenfranchised groups — in village and district councils throughout the country. Consequently, the 1994 elections had brought nearly 1 million elected women representatives into local governance bodies. 33. As the law had been enacted quickly and without supportive measures, many challenges arose. This included the placing of women as proxy candidates for male politicians; patriarchal and ethnic divisions that led to active exclusion of elected women representatives; a lack of appropriate support and skills development to address widespread illiteracy among rural women; a democratic deficit due to the history of exclusion from public life; women’s lack of self-perception as leaders; and a backlash in the form of harassment, social exclusion and gender-based violence. It was also found that many elected women representatives were unlikely to contest elections more than once. 34. In response, civil society organizations, government and international agencies introduced initiatives to support women’s participation. Pre-election voter awareness campaigns were undertaken to counteract the perception that the one-third reservation signified the maximum number of seats available for women. A range of programmes were also undertaken in ensuing years, including longer-term capacity-building efforts led by civil society organizations with elected women representatives, in which women representatives received both ongoing training to strengthen their leadership and advocacy skills and education on gender issues of concern in the community. 35. Women were also mobilized through the establishment of an ongoing meeting platform for elected female representatives at the village level designed to support them in preparation for making policy recommendations at the main village council meetings. Given their success, these meeting platforms have been legally mandated since 2012, requiring all local governments to hold such meetings in advance of general village meetings. Additionally, the legal framework was further fortified through State-level laws entrenching or boosting the quota from one-third to 50 per cent, including leadership positions. A draft constitutional amendment in 2009 sought to raise the requirement to parity within all elected positions nationwide, but the bill lapsed. 36. Research overwhelmingly indicated that the presence of women in rural governance has had positive impacts on key gendered concerns, including the improvement of health services, water and sanitation facilities, and microcredit schemes for women. Issues related to discrimination and violence against women were also being addressed by women representatives. Additional research showed significant impacts on attitudinal changes and in the elimination of gender stereotypes, demonstrated in shifts in the organization of labour in households, women’s self-perception and increased societal support for girls’ education and future aspirations. These correlations increased in villages where women chairs had been elected a second time. 37. The introduction of quotas provided a strong and unassailable legal prerogative for women’s inclusion in local-level political bodies. However, the legal framework on its own was insufficient to ensure the meaningful political participation of women until the introduction of complementary measures, integrally involving civil society organizations, 8