UN General Assembly Adopts U.S.-Sponsored Resolution on Women and Political Participation

Released by the Office of International Women's Issues
December 22, 2003

Respect for women is a Bush administration foreign policy imperative. The United States supports programs and initiatives that help women take their rightful place in society, with a focus on increasing their economic opportunity and political participation. So committed is the United States to expanding political opportunities for women that it sponsored a new resolution on "Women and Political Participation" at the 2003 UN General Assembly session. The resolution contains a blueprint for governments, the private sector, and civil society groups to ensure that women are given an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. It was adopted by the full General Assembly in December 2003 with an impressive 110 cosponsors joining the United States. In every region of the world, the United States is actively trying to implement the principles called for in this important resolution. Following is the full text of the resolution:

Resolution on Women and Political Participation

The General Assembly,

Reaffirming the obligations of all States to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of the United Nations, and guided by the purposes and principles of human rights instruments,

Reaffirming also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,^[1] which states that everyone has the right to take part in the government of his or her country and the right of equal access to public service,

Recalling the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,^[2] which states, inter alia, that every citizen shall have the right and opportunity to take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives, to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections and to have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his or her country,

Recalling also the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,^[3] which states, inter alia, that States parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country,

Recalling further the Convention on the Political Rights of Women,^[4] which states that women shall be, on equal terms with men and without any discrimination, entitled to vote in all elections, eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies established by national law and entitled to hold public office and to exercise all public functions established by national law,

Recalling the Beijing Declaration ^[5] and Platform for Action,^[6] the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century",^[7] the United Nations Millennium Declaration,^[8] and agreed conclusions 1997/2 of the Commission on the Status of Women on women in power and decision-making, ^[9]

Affirming that the empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social and economic status is essential to the achievement of representative, transparent and accountable government, democratic institutions and sustainable development in all areas of life,

Affirming also that the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy,

Concerned that, despite general acceptance of the need for gender balance in decision-making bodies at all levels, women are still largely underrepresented at most levels of government, especially in ministerial and other executive bodies, and in legislative bodies,

Recognizing that women have demonstrated considerable leadership in community and informal organizations, as well as in public office,

Recognizing also that women’s full and equal participation in the political process and decision-making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society, is needed to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning, plays a pivotal role in furthering women’s equal status, including improving women’s socio-economic status, and contributes to redefining political priorities and providing new perspectives on political issues,

Recognizing further that women’s participation in decision-making and in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life is negatively affected by poverty, which disproportionately affects women, particularly in developing countries,

Reaffirming the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and stressing the importance of their full and equal participation in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security and the need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention, resolution and rebuilding of post-conflict society, in accordance with Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 and the relevant resolutions of
the General Assembly,

Recognizing the importance of education and training from an early age in government, public policy, economics, civics, information technology and science to ensure that women develop the knowledge, skills, confidence and ethical values needed to participate fully in society and the political process,

1. Urges States:

(a) To promote and protect the right of women to associate freely, express their views publicly, openly debate political policy and petition and participate in their Government at all levels, including in the formulation and implementation of government policy, on equal terms with men;

(b) To eliminate laws, regulations and practices that in a discriminatory manner prevent or restrict women from participating in the political process, and to implement positive measures that would accelerate the achievement of equality between men and women;

(c) To ensure equal access to education, property rights and inheritance rights, and to promote equal access to information technology and business and economic opportunities, including in international trade, in order to provide women with the tools that enable them to take part fully and equally in decision-making processes at all levels;

(d) To counter, as appropriate, negative societal attitudes about women’s capacity to participate equally in the political process that contribute to the low proportion of women among political decision makers at the local, national and international levels;

(e) To promote the goal of gender balance in all public positions, and to take all appropriate measures to encourage political parties to ensure that women have a fair and equal opportunity to compete for all elective and non-elective public positions;

(f) To review the differential impact of their electoral systems on the political representation of women in elected bodies and to adjust or reform those systems where appropriate;

(g) To institute educational programmes, as appropriate, in the school curriculum that sensitize young people about the equal rights of women, teach civic responsibilities, promote confidence-building and counter negative societal attitudes that discourage women’s political participation;

(h) To monitor progress in the representation of women through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of data on the political participation of women and men at all levels and the progress of political parties in providing equal and fair opportunities for women to participate;

(i) To identify and propose more women candidates for senior and decision making positions in the United Nations system and for appointment or election to intergovernmental expert and treaty bodies, and to encourage more women to apply for those positions;

(j) To promote gender balance for their delegations to United Nations and other international meetings and conferences;

(k) To encourage greater involvement of indigenous and other marginalized women in decision-making at all levels and to address and counter the barriers faced by marginalized women in accessing and participating in politics and decision making;

(l) To ensure that measures to reconcile family and professional life apply equally to women and men, bearing in mind that the sharing of family responsibilities between women and men creates an enabling environment for women’s political participation;

2. Invites Governments, as well as the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors:

(a) To develop mechanisms and training programmes that encourage women to participate in the electoral process and improve women’s capacity to cast informed votes in free and fair elections;

(b) To encourage political parties to remove all barriers that directly or indirectly discriminate against the participation of women, in order to ensure that women have the right to participate fully at all levels of decision-making in all internal policy-making structures and nominating processes and in the leadership of political parties on equal terms with men;

(c) To encourage political parties to actively seek qualified women candidates, to provide training in conducting campaigns, public speaking, fundraising and parliamentary procedure and to include qualified women and men on their party lists for elective office, where such lists exist;

(d) To strive to ensure that information about candidates, political party platforms, voting procedures, including voter registration, and electoral law is available to women on an equal basis with men;

(e) To support initiatives, including public-private partnerships and exchange programmes, to expand women’s political skills, which include imparting or enhancing skills on how to vote, advocate, manage and govern, run for public office and serve as elected and appointed officials;

(f) To promote the participation of young people, especially women, in civil society organizations to enable them to acquire experience, skills and capacities that are transferable to the field of political participation;

(g) To encourage the establishment of, and support of existing, nongovernmentalorganizations that provide training in leadership, decision-making, public speaking skills, use of information and communication technologies, confidence-building and political campaigning;

(h) To intensify efforts to increase the number of women in public bodies, including through research into barriers to women’s access to high-level public appointments;

(i) To promote recruitment and career-development programmes that provide women equal access to managerial, entrepreneurial, technical and leadership training, in order to better enable them to assume legislative, judicial and executive positions in government;

(j) To continue to study links between poverty eradication, the empowerment of women, in particular with regard to women’s political participation, and to compile and widely disseminate good practices and lessons learned;

(k) To promote equal opportunities for women to gain appointment to advisory and decision-making bodies and promotion to senior positions by, inter alia, reviewing the criteria for recruitment, appointment and promotion, to ensure that such criteria are relevant to and do not discriminate against women;

(l) To develop programmes to educate and train women and girls in using the media and information and communication technologies in order to obtain and impart information, be informed voters, network, communicate to potential voters and raise campaign funds;

(m) To encourage the media to recognize the importance of women’s participation in the political process, provide fair and balanced coverage of male and female candidates, cover participation in women’s political organizations and ensure coverage of issues that have a particular impact on women;

3. Urges States and the United Nations system to increase participation of women at all levels of decision-making in conflict resolution and peace processes;

4. Invites non-governmental organizations and other actors of civil society:

(a) To advocate at all levels to enable women to influence political, economic and social decisions, processes and systems, including by building and strengthening networks among women;

(b) To establish, consistent with data-protection legislation, databases on women and their qualifications for use in appointing women to senior decision making and advisory positions, for dissemination to Governments, regional and international organizations and private enterprise, political parties and other relevant bodies;

(c) To increase coordination and cooperation in supporting women and to continue to present women’s concerns and experiences to Governments;

5. Requests the Secretary-General, in his report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fiftieth session, to include information on the participation of women in politics at all levels, bearing in mind that in 2006 the Commission will consider the item entitled "Equal participation of women and men in decision making processes at all levels", and encourages Governments to cooperate with the Secretary-General by providing precise data on the political participation of women
at all levels.

__________________

[1] Resolution 217 A (III).

[2] See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.

[3] Resolution 34/180, annex.

[4] Resolution 640 (VII).

[5] Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex I.

[6] Ibid., annex II.

[7] Resolution S-23/3, annex.

[8] See resolution 55/2.

[9] Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1997, Supplement No. 7 (E/1997/27), chap. I, sect. C.1.

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