1079 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "The Security Council, (...) 3. Encourages Member States to increase their funding on women, peace and security including through more aid in conflict and post-conflict situations for programmes that further gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as through support to civil society, and to support countries in armed conflict and post-conflict situations, including through capacity-building, in their implementation of women, peace and security resolutions (...)."
- "The General Assembly, (…) 8. Calls upon all States to enhance the political participation of women, accelerate the achievement of equality between men and women and, in all situations, promote and protect the human rights of women with respect to voting in elections and public referendums and being eligible for election to publicly elected bodies on equal terms with men."
- "The General Assembly, (…) 17. Reiterates the role of civil society and the importance of its active engagement in the promotion of democratization, and invites Member States to facilitate the full participation of civil society in electoral processes."
- "By Governments: (…) (e) Monitor and evaluate progress in the representation of women through the regular collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative and qualitative data on women and men at all levels in various decision-making positions in the public and private sectors, and disseminate data on the number of women and men employed at various levels in governments on a yearly basis (...). "
- "The state shall not only (passively) respect the exercise of the freedom of association, but shall also actively protect and facilitate this exercise. The state shall protect political parties and individuals in their freedom of association from interference by non-state actors, inter alia by legislative means. "
- "Political parties can for instance introduce provisions in their statutes to promote gender equality. These could include, for example, a minimum representation of each sex or women’s sections in decision-making structures, electoral lists, nominations and appointments."
- "Measures to help promote adequate national minority representation might include reserving a set number of parliamentary seats for specific minorities, waiving the threshold for the number of votes received so that parties representing national minorities may be represented in parliament and the provision of electoral material, including ballot papers, as well as voter education and campaign materials in minority languages."
- "Countries with an electoral system based on proportional representation and party lists may introduce temporary special measures that would promote not only a high proportion of women candidates, but also a rank-order rule, such as a "zipper" system, where male and female candidates alternate, or where one of every three candidates through the list is from the less represented gender. Rank-order rules of this type remove the risk that women will be placed too low on party lists to have a genuine chance of being elected. It is also advisable to promote that if a female candidate withdraws her candidature, she is replaced with another woman."
- "Countries with a majoritarian electoral system are recommended to introduce provisions that promote systems whereby each party chooses a candidate from among at least one female and one male nominee in each district, or to find other ways to promote increased representation of women in elected politics. "
- "Ensuring that gender is part of all strategic and action plans means that statements in the vision are incorporated into the work of the EMB. A specific gender policy is a good way to outline all work related to gender in one place. In other cases, including gender considerations into the strategic plan and all other policies could ensure that gender equality is considered in all areas of the organization and that everyone sees it as part of their work."
- "Women’s presence in EMBs – in all capacities, including leadership positions – is critical to ensuring that the institution and its work meet gender equality targets and obligations. There are several ways that women’s presence can be secured, including through the adoption of TSMs, such as gender quotas for the appointment and recruitment of commissioners and secretariat staff. Developing equal opportunity policies and gender-sensitive recruitment and promotion practices, such as those that allow for the preference of women over men for promotion where both candidates are of equal qualification, may result in greater gender balance among staff. "
- "EMBs are well-placed to ensure that the data they collect are disaggregated by sex. This data allow an EMB to identify any gender gaps in registration, turnout or staffing levels and where such gaps are identified, to monitor any progress in closing them. Ensuring that any data collected are sex-disaggregated may require legislative reform or changes to electoral regulations."
- "EMBs may consider implementing different actions to combat any practices or obstacles that impede voting, such as setting up polling stations in a way that enables all citizens to cast their votes independently and in secret, ensuring that voting centres are in locations that women can access and establishing, where necessary, women-only polling centres or queues."
- "Violence against women in elections is an increasingly apparent trend that requires a concerted response from EMBs, often in partnership with other stakeholders, including the security sector, political parties and CSOs. (...) EMBs can act to mitigate VAWE [violence against women in elections] on election day itself. Operational decisions, including the location, staffing and layout of polling stations, impact the perception of VAWE risks. Women voters are significantly more likely to be victims of polling day violence than men and violence against women voters occurs most frequently in rural settings."
- "Media information and digital literacy empowers people and builds their resilience against disinformation and misinformation, as noted recently by the General Assembly."
- "Reserved seats can be used to ensure the representation of specific minority groups in the legislature."
- "International election observation has the potential to enhance the integrity of election processes, by deterring and exposing irregularities and fraud and by providing recommendations for improving electoral processes."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) b. Guarantees unimpeded access of the international election observer mission to all stages of the election process and all election technologies, including electronic technologies and the certification processes for electronic voting and other technologies, without requiring election observation missions to enter into confidentiality or other nondisclosure agreements concerning technologies or election processes, and recognizes that international election observation missions may not certify technologies as acceptable."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) c. Guarantees unimpeded access to all persons concerned with election processes, including: i electoral officials at all levels, upon reasonable requests, ii members of legislative bodies and government and security officials whose functions are relevant to organizing genuine democratic elections, iii all of the political parties, organizations and persons that have sought to compete in the elections (including those that qualified, those that were disqualified and those that withdrew from participating) and those that abstained from participating, iv news media personnel, and v all organizations and persons that are interested in achieving genuine democratic elections in the country."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) d. Guarantees freedom of movement around the country for all members of the international election observer mission."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) e. Guarantees the international election observer mission’s freedom to issue without interference public statements and reports concerning its findings and recommendations about election related processes and developments."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) f. Guarantees that no governmental, security or electoral authority will interfere in the selection of individual observers or other members of the international election observation mission or attempt to limit its numbers."
- "Citizens have an internationally recognized right to associate and a right to participate in governmental and public affairs in their country. These rights may be exercised through nongovernmental organizations monitoring all processes related to elections and observing procedures, including among other things the functioning of electronic and other electoral technologies inside polling stations, counting centers and other electoral facilities, as well as the transport of ballots and other sensitive materials. International election observation missions should evaluate and report on whether domestic nonpartisan election monitoring and observation organizations are able, on a nondiscriminatory basis, to conduct their activities without undue restrictions or interference."
- "Non-partisan observation and monitoring of elections by citizen organizations is part of participating in public affairs, which “relates to legislative, executive and administrative powers” and “covers all aspects of public administration, and the formulation and implementation of policy….”(UNHRC General Comment 25, paragraph 5.) Non-partisan election observation and monitoring by citizen organizations exercises the right of association that is central to the functioning of nongovernmental organizations, as well as the right to seek, receive and impart information that is vital to transparency and is included in the freedom of expression protected by articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR."
- "Non-partisan election observation and monitoring by citizen organizations is the mobilization of citizens in a politically neutral, impartial and non-discriminatory manner to exercise their right of participation in public affairs by witnessing and reporting on electoral developments through: independent, systematic and comprehensive evaluation of legal frameworks, institutions, processes and the political environment related to elections; impartial, accurate and timely analysis of findings; the characterization of the findings based on the highest ethical standards for impartiality and accuracy; the offering of appropriate recommendations for obtaining genuine democratic elections; and advocating for improvements in legal frameworks for elections, their implementation through electoral related administration and removal of impediments to full citizen participation in electoral and political processes."
- "The lack of adequate security for deployment of observers/monitors or not being provided accreditation and access to electoral facilities or other factors may prevent systematic scrutiny of election processes."
- "The application of universal design principles and direct and/or indirect participation of the user in all design stages are effective means for improving the accessibility of polling stations and election procedures to cast one’s vote and for getting access to information on elections."
- "Persons with disabilities should be enabled, freely and without discrimination, particularly of a legal, environmental and/or financial nature, to: - vote and stand for election at all levels; - have access to communication, information, procedures and facilities related to their political rights; - have equal access to public duties; - meet, join or found associations; - meet, join or found political parties; - express their opinions; - be closely consulted and actively included in the development and implementation of legislation and policies, and in other decision-making processes concerning issues that affect them."
- "Persons with disabilities and/or their representative organisations should be involved in the whole policy cycle: programming, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies that affect persons with disabilities. "