The focus of the Working Group on political transition has been carried out through its communications, country visits and regional and global expert input. Experience in countries in transition has varied greatly. In the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe during the 1990s, as in some of the recent political transitions in the Middle East and North Africa, there was backsliding on key gains for gender equality and/or the numerical representation of women was reduced. In contrast, in some political transitions in various countries in many regions, the introduction of quotas facilitated a significant rise in representation of women, producing, for instance in sub-Saharan Africa, some of the highest percentages of women members of parliament. Good practice in these States included the active engagement with the international community in the peacebuilding process and an emphasis on democracy, human rights and women's rights as human rights.