The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee extended its deadline to 29 May 2020 to receive contributions and inputs from relevant stakeholders, including Member States, international and regional organizations, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the special procedures, national human rights institutions, civil society and academic institutions, for its report on Current levels of representation of women in human rights organs and mechanisms. This is a great  opportunity to contribute to the debate on improving gender balance in international courts and organs.
In June 2019, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 41/6, in which it requested the Advisory Committee to prepare a report, in close cooperation with the Working Group on Discrimination against Women (WG) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, on current levels of representation of women in human rights organs and mechanisms such as the Advisory Committee, the treaty bodies and the special procedures established by the Human Rights Council.

 The report is set to include good practices by States in nominating, electing and appointing candidates to ensure balanced gender representation, in line with the system-wide strategy on gender parity, and recommendations to assist the Council and Member States in this regard. The Rapporteur of the Advisory Committee leading the drafting of the report is Professor Elizabeth Salmon from Peru.

The GQUAL Campaign worked with the WG and the Mission of Mexico in Geneva to craft language for this resolution to promote gender balance at the United Nations human rights organs and mechanisms.
For more information on the Resolution and the questionnaire to guide the contributions and views, click here.