Advocacy & Lobbying
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) conducted a consultation forum on March 18, 2026, in Addis Ababa with stakeholders regarding the legal protections provided for women political party members, independent candidates and journalists within electoral contexts. The forum brought together women in politics, journalists and relevant stakeholders.
During the forum, issues concerning the protections granted to women during elections under international and continental human rights conventions, as well as under national legal frameworks were presented and discussed. Furthermore, issues regarding women’s right to equal participation with men in elections and public administration affairs were addressed, including the right to establish or join political parties, engage in election campaigning, participate in peaceful demonstrations and meetings, take part in debates and voice constructive criticism.
March is more than a marker on the calendar. It is a season of reflection, recognition, and renewed resolve. As the world observes International Women’s Day 2026, attention turns not only to the achievements of women, but also to the inequalities that persist beneath the surface of progress. In Nigeria, this moment carries a particular weight. Women are visible everywhere—in markets, in classrooms, in businesses, and in the daily work of sustaining families and communities yet they remain strikingly invisible in the spaces where power is exercised.
This contradiction is not abstract; it is measurable. Women make up nearly half of Nigeria’s population and form a significant share of its voting strength, yet their presence in political office tells a different story. In a National Assembly of 469 members, only a small fraction are women. The Senate, with 109 seats, has historically had fewer than ten female senators at any given time, while the House of Representatives, with 360 members, and has rarely had more than 20 women. In practical terms, this means that for every woman in the legislature, there are more than 15 men shaping national decisions. At the state level, the imbalance is often even more pronounced, with some assemblies having little or no female representation at all.
These figures place Nigeria near the bottom of global rankings on women’s political participation. The gap becomes even clearer when compared with other African countries. In Rwanda, women occupy more than 60 percent of parliamentary seats, a transformation achieved through deliberate constitutional reforms after 2003. Senegal moved close to parity following its 2010 gender parity law, while South Africa has steadily increased women’s participation through party-based quotas since the mid-1990s. These examples show that change is possible when it is intentional.
When women lead, democracies thrive. Yet, in Bangladesh's electoral landscape, the voices of women remain critically underrepresented. While women are active voters, their transition to leadership roles is alarmingly slow, a challenge that recently brought together the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Bangladesh Election Commission (BEC) for a crucial strategic dialogue.
The dialogue, held on 16 March 2026 to honour International Women’s Day, set a collaborative tone from the outset. It opened with a symbolic performance titled “Women to Discover, Develop, and Lead,” jointly presented by UNDP and the BEC to champion women's voices in the democratic process.
Following this, the discussion moved beyond gestures to address the deep-rooted barriers hindering female participation. UNDP provided an evidence-based overview of the challenges, while the Election Commission reaffirmed its commitment to gender-sensitive reforms.
The core of the issue is stark. Bangladesh’s Representation of the People Order (RPO) mandates a goal of 33% female representation in political party committees by 2030. However, the current reality stands at a mere 2.33%, a gap that officials agree requires immediate and concerted action.
The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Speakers at the fourth day of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) warned that Taliban policies in Afghanistan amount to a system of “gender apartheid,” while also highlighting persistent global gaps in women’s political participation.
According to a report by US Dispatch, discussions focused on what participants described as the systematic removal of women from public life in Afghanistan and broader structural barriers limiting women’s roles in politics worldwide.
Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on Afghanistan, said the Taliban has dismantled key justice institutions since returning to power in 2021, leaving no women judges, lawyers or prosecutors in the country.
He said women are barred from representing themselves in legal proceedings and must be accompanied by a male guardian to appear before tribunals.
Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania were consolidated after the First World War, all experiencing communist regimes following the Second World War, and, after 1989, embarking on a transition to democracy. These neighbouring states have been profoundly influenced by Orthodox traditions and share historical, cultural, and religious similarities, including traditional perceptions of gender roles.
The differences in the evolution of women’s rights to vote and to be elected to decision-making bodies are all the more striking given these similarities. They highlight the crucial importance of institutional frameworks designed to effectively guarantee gender equality, ensuring it does not remain merely an abstract legislative principle.
The evolutionary stages undergone in the sphere of women’s electoral rights here provide an appropriate framework for studying the relationship between the principle of equality enshrined in law, socio-political transformations, and the effective functioning of institutions.
The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TGNA) Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (KEFEK) came together in Nevşehir, in cooperation with the British Embassy Ankara and UN Women Türkiye, to strengthen the joint fight against technology-facilitated violence against women.
The “Knowledge-Sharing Meeting on Strengthening Women’s Participation in Politics and Decision-Making”, held in Nevşehir on 28–29 March 2026, focused on the prevention of technology-facilitated violence against women and girls and on strengthening accountability in this area.Members of Parliament, together with international guests joining online from UN Women Headquarters and the government of United Kingdom, and experts, discussed the new barriers to women’s political participation in the digital age and the steps needed to overcome them.
Nevşehir MP Emre Çalışkani KEFEK Chair Çiğdem Erdoğan and Nevşehir Governor Ali Fidan gave opening remarks, highlighting the role of women in the economic, cultural and social life of Türkiye’s geography, and underscored the symbolic value of holding the meeting in Nevşehir.
This report and accompanying policy brief is intended to trigger a UN ‘rethink’ about women’s participation in transitional justice at both the policy and programme levels.
Fundamentally, ‘meaningful’ women’s participation in transitional justice does not only involve women being present—instead, it involves the convergence of several elements and manifests when women from diverse backgrounds: have the ability to enter; are present; possess self-efficacy; deploy their agency; and exert influence over transitional justice processes.
It recommends several adjustments for UN policy and programming—both in general and in relation to the updating of the UN Secretary-General’s 2010 Guidance Note on transitional justice—to better promote women’s meaningful participation in transitional justice.
Click here to access the report.
This report assesses women’s access to justice and women’s political participation in parliament, local councils and civil society organisations in Colombia. It examines existing legal, political and institutional frameworks in order to better understand successes, challenges and implementation gaps in the government’s pursuit of access to justice and gender equality. The report also offers examples of different approaches in OECD member and partner countries to support Colombia in closing gender gaps. Based on this analysis, the report proposes actionable solutions to help Colombia design and deliver policies that effectively promote women’s political participation and access to justice, including for survivors of gender based violence.
Click here to download the full report published by the OECD on 11 July 2020.
In 2016 at the launch of the #NotTheCost campaign, NDI presented a list of strategies to address and prevent violence against women in politics, focusing on a wide range of potential change-makers, from the global to the grassroots levels. While a deeper understanding of the issue has emerged, new problems have arisen. The world is grappling with a global pandemic. Many countries have seen their democratic institutions severely weakened. Technological innovations have created new contexts and means of perpetrating violence against women. On the fifth anniversary of the #NotTheCost campaign, NDI is renewing its call to action and presenting new opportunities to end both prevailing and newly emerging types of violence against women in politics. In the 2021 call to action, NDI identifies new opportunities to end both prevailing and newly emerging types of violence against women in politics.
Click here to read the full report.
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organized the conference "Promoting the political participation of women with disabilities" in Vienna on 16 and 17 April 2018. The event was held as part of ODIHR’s project “Our right to participate – Promoting the participation of Persons with Disabilities in political and public life (Phase II)”, implemented across the OSCE region.
The conference served as a platform to raise awareness about the limited participation of women with disabilities in political life across the OSCE region and to identify positive measures which can facilitate more diverse and inclusive democratic institutions and parliaments. It explored ways to strengthen linkages between the women’s movement and the disability movement, drawing on common experiences, challenges and opportunities.
Click here to read the meeting report.
Inclusive politics remains an elusive goal in Pakistan, which has a history of military interference in governance institutions, unstable elected governments and internecine conflict. Women’s voices, within the corridors of power or as constituents whose interests must be accounted for, have been weak but are growing stronger.
Activism, led by the women’s movement and civil society advocacy groups since the 1980s, has yielded results. The state has opened up democratic spaces to women in elected legislatures and local bodies through an expanded reserved seats quota; and recently legislators revised electoral rules to mandate a minimal level of women’s greater inclusion as candidates and voters.
This paper aims to contribute to the growing body of literature around how feminist mobilisation and political voice leads to progressive policy outcomes. It does this through exploring three questions:
How did the women’s movement lead to the decision to restore and increase the quota for women in elected bodies?
How have women used their elected positions, and worked in caucuses, to promote their interests? What other measures will further strengthen their political voice?
Can we gain insight into pro-women policymaking by looking at women’s activism, political voice, and other factors within a broader contextual framework to identify patterns that may predict further progress?
Click here to see the paper.
Given that 2018 is the centenary of some women gaining the vote in the UK, the British Council has commissioned this research to map and understand the key developments in women’s role in politics in the UK and around the world over the last 100 years, contrasting the UK’s progress with international examples.
This report will form a basis for developing international discussion and debate about these vital issues and generating opportunities to do even more to support women’s political participation. This is in furtherance of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5.5 – ‘Women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life’ and supports the British Council’s role of creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust as the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
The research engaged a range of participants from the UK as a whole, the nations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and internationally through 40 individual interviews; six roundtables with 77 stakeholders and over 60 talking head short films to reflect many different experiences and a range of expertise. There was a desire to understand the direct experiences of participants, and their voices and views were drawn on directly throughout. Participants were mainly women and ranged from those with direct experience as politicians, to those who are experts as academics, international consultants and activists in the field of women’s political participation.
Click here to read the full report.