As recognized in Millennium Development Goal 3, a major obstacle to the achievement of gender equality is the paucity of women in public-decision making, and the weakness of social and political constituency demanding gender equality in governance.

After its May 2007 review of Pakistan’s State Party report, the CEDAW Committee in its concluding remarks1 specifically asked Pakistan to “accelerate the increase in the representation of women in elected and appointed bodies in all areas of public and political life” and “to ensure that all women have a National Identity Card”, which is the first step to guarantee a full women voters turn-out.

Also the Pakistan’s National Plan of Action for Women has as a strategic objective o “Strengthen representation and decision making of women in the political process.”

One of the pillars of UN WOMEN’s work is the provision of technical guidance and support to enhance women’s political participation, a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. It therefore aims to contribute to the UN system’s efforts to assist the Government of Pakistan to:

1. Improve the gender responsiveness in electoral laws and policies, as well as the operational procedures and monitoring systems of the Election Commission of Pakistan, the National Data Registration Authority, and the Political Parties Act

2. Reinforce the planning and monitoring resource base to guide gender aware legislation and policy/plan formulation and tracking of progress against Strategic Objective

3. Institute interventions to effect positive changes in public attitudes and values about women’s participation in politics as voters, candidates, and members of decision making bodies.

The time is favourable these initiatives since it allows building upon the impetus provided by the experience of the previous legislative cycle, and the outcome of the recent elections which indicates a motivation to elevate the status of women in the Assemblies and in the Government.

The UN WOMEN Country office works in close collaboration with the main government and non-governmental stake-holders at national, provincial and local levels, focused on women’s empowerment, and especially with UNDP governance programmes with respect to women’s political participation.

At global level UN WOMEN is a key partner of the iKNOW politics website, and the achievements of Pakistani women in politics will form the basis for a global challenge campaign to increase women’s electoral participation.

1 CEDAW Committee 38th session – Para 33 of the concluding observations on Pakistan’s report. May 2007