Gender and Elections

Topic IndexKey concepts about Temporary Special Measures

TSM are “policies adopted and implemented to increase women’s access to political participation and decision-making in order to overcome structural barriers that women face in male-dominated electoral politics […]. CEDAW’s general recommendation No. 25 (2004) states that “States parties are obliged to adopt and implement TSM […] if such measures can be shown to be necessary and appropriate in order to accelerate the achievement of the overall, or a specific goal of, women's de facto or substantive equality” (paragraph 24). CEDAW’s general recommendation No. 25 [1] provides some basic clarifications on the nature of TSMs:

Broad scope: TSMs “should aim to accelerate the equal participation of women indicating that TSMs apply to many areas beyond the electoral or even political sphere”.
Temporary character: TSMs “must be discontinued when their desired results have been achieved and sustained for a period of time” (paragraph 20). State parties therefore should "clearly distinguish" between TSMs and other social policies implemented to improve the situation of women (paragraph 26).
Diversity of measures: “The term "measures" encompasses a wide variety of legislative, executive, administrative and other regulatory instruments, policies and practices, such as outreach or support programmes; allocation and/or reallocation of resources; preferential treatment; targeted recruitment, hiring and promotion; numerical goals connected with time frames; and quota systems.” (paragraph 22).
Context-specificity: “The choice of a particular "measure" will depend on the context (...) and on the specific goal it aims to achieve” (paragraph 22). TSMs should be designed, explained, evaluated and reported upon according to the special context setting concrete targets (e.g. paragraphs 28, 33, 36). There is no "one-size fits all" approach to TSMs.”[1]

[1] UNDP: “Enhancing women’s participation throughout the electoral process.” E-learning course.

[1] Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation no. 25 on Article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, on temporary special measures.

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Gender and Elections