III. Conceptual framework

13. For legal guarantees of gender equality to benefit all women, implementation frameworks and strategies must be responsive to the intersections of sex-based discrimination with other grounds of discrimination, such as race, ethnicity, religion or belief, language, political affiliation, health, status, age, class, caste, national or social origin, property, birth, and sexual orientation and gender identity. Legal guarantees and implementation frameworks and strategies must also integrate special measures to reach women who face multiple forms of discrimination, such as rural and indigenous women, women with disabilities, women living in poverty and women facing other forms of marginalization. This requires a comprehensive and coherent human rights-based approach that ensures that women are at the centre of efforts to hold principally States accountable for implementing international standards guaranteeing civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. National, regional and international human rights mechanisms play critical roles in ensuring the full enjoyment by women of their human rights.

IV. Thematic priorities

A. Political and public life, with a focus on political transition

28. The Working Group will also incorporate into its review the fact that women participating in political change and public life are often exposed to violence. The Working Group takes note of reports that women defenders are more at risk than men of suffering from certain forms of violence and other violations, due to the perception that they are challenging accepted sociocultural norms, traditions, perceptions and stereotypes about femininity, sexual orientation, the family and the role and status of women in society.^[3]

Link to full text of the report: Report-WGWomen-2012-eng