Freedoms of peaceful
assembly and of association are a key pillar of democratic principles and
institutions, and of credible electoral processes. Around the world, women’s
associations and other civil society groups continue to advocate for gender
equality and inclusive electoral processes despite existing threats to the
enjoyment of these liberties and the current global trend of shrinking civic space.
In many countries, the advocacy efforts of women’s associations have
contributed to long-term positive social change, by increasing women’s
participation and fostering equality. Efforts to promote gender equality should
also include men and engage male allies in the construction of inclusive
democratic principles and institutions. Also, LGBTI groups in different
countries have engaged in advocacy work to promote political inclusion and
effective participation in public life.
This section mainly deals
with the advocacy work conducted by civil society organizations to promote
inclusive participation of all genders in the electoral process. However, the
contribution of civil society to promote gender equality and women’s
participation in elections is not exclusively limited to advocacy efforts, and
covers a much wider spectrum of the electoral process, through a broad range of
activities, such as civic and voter education, election observation, capacity
building and training, among others. For more information, please see section 5 of this topic area,
“promoting women’s participation and gender equality throughout the electoral
cycle”, as well as section 6,
“Enhancing a gender approach in election observation and monitoring.”
