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South Africa

A Practical Guide to Constitution Building

A Practical Guide to Constitution Building provides an essential foundation for understanding constitutions and constitution building. Full of world examples of ground-breaking agreements and innovative provisions adopted during processes of constitutional change, the Guide offers a wide range of examples of how constitutions develop and how their development can establish and entrench democratic values. Beyond comparative examples, the Guide contains in-depth analysis of key components of constitutions and the forces of change that shape them.

Chapter 2 includes a section on "Principles related to gender" and Chapter 3 includes a section on "The rights of women".

Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties

How women participate in political parties – and how those parties encourage and nurture women’s involvement and incorporate gender-equality issues – are key determinants of women’s political empowerment. They are also key to ensuring gender-equality issues are addressed in the wider society. If strategies to promote women’s involvement in the political process are to be effective, they should be linked to steps parties can take across the specific phases of the electoral cycle – the preelectoral, electoral and post-electoral phases – and to the organization and financing of the parties themselves. 
 
The most effective strategies to increase women’s participation in political parties combine reforms to political institutions with targeted support to women party activists within and outside party structures, women candidates and elected officials. These strategies require the cooperation of a variety of actors and political parties from across the political spectrum.
 
The Guide identifies targeted interventions that political parties can take to empower women. It is structured according to four phases, following an electoral cycle approach.

Constitution of South-Africa

Full text of the 1996 Constitution of South Africa.  

Consolidated Response on the Prevention of Family Voting

This consolidated response includes descriptions of family and proxy voting and provides recommendations on how to eliminate family voting through holding trainings and public awareness campaigns, strengthening legislative frameworks, and sensitizing election commissioners and observers on issues faced by women.

Closing the Gap

This report addresses gender equality and women’s human rights in the UK and the European Community development cooperation programmes in South Africa, Nicaragua and Bangladesh. Six case studies are used to compare on-the-ground practice with stated policy commitments.

Making Justice Democratic

This report explores how the poorest and most excluded communities can get access to justice that is appropriate, gender-sensitive and accountable, can enjoy personal safety and security for their property, and exercise their full human rights. First-hand reports focus on issues of access to and accountability of justice systems to the poorest people, from a gender perspective, and shared information on useful approaches, initiatives and strategies from South and North.

Gender Equality and Justice Programming: Equitable Access to Justice for Women

This primer outlines the major obstacles and barriers women face in accessing justice and suggests strategies and interventions to overcome these challenges. Gender mainstreaming is not a goal in itself, but rather a strategy towards achieving equality between men and women. The majority of this primer focuses on women’s access to justice and the social relationships between men and women that disadvantage women and hamper this access.

Consolidated Response on Gender Quotas in African Countries

This consolidated response highlights various types of quotas adopted in African countries and provides details on the implementation of quotas under different electoral systems. The response also includes several annexes with data on quotas based on country and on quota type.

Budgeting for Women’s Rights: Monitoring Government Budgets for Compliance with CEDAW

This publication discusses the link between human rights standards and government budgets. It elaborates on how budgets and budget policy making processes can be monitored for compliance with human rights standards, in particular with the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Combining substantive analysis with country examples, the publication explores how a rights-based budget analysis can be applied to public expenditure, public revenue, macroeconomics of the budget, and budget decision-making.

Consolidated Responses on Independent Women Candidates in Local Elections in Mali

This consolidated response highlights recommendations on how to empower independent women candidates to succeed in elections. These recommendations include providing training sessions, working with civil society organizations, forming women’s caucuses and coalitions, holding public outreach campaigns, and lobbying political parties.