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.”