Introduction to the Symposium by GQUAL on CEDAW’s GR40: Transforming Decision-Making – The Power of CEDAW’s GR40 in Advancing Women’s Equal Representation

[María Noel Leoni is Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and Director and Founding Member of GQUAL’s Secretariat 

Alejandra Vicente is Head of Law at REDRESS and Founding Member of GQUAL’s Secretariat]

International decision-making systems are fundamental to international cooperation, shaping political consensus, and establishing legal standards and accountability mechanisms on critical issues such as human and women’s rights, climate change, peace and security, trade, and economic development. Women’s equal participation in these decisions is necessary to ensure the right to equality and to strengthen the capacity of these institutions to develop inclusive and effective solutions to those global challenges. International human rights law standards, particularly the principles of equality and non-discrimination, provide a critical framework for advancing fair and inclusive representation in global governance. 

When the GQUAL Campaign was first launched in 2015, the landscape of international justice was glaringly unequal.  At the time, there were no women judges on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea had seen just one woman judge in its entire history; and the International Court of Justice had only four women judges since its founding.  Furthermore,19 Special Procedures Mandates of the UN Human Rights Council had never been held by a woman, including those devoted to torture prevention and freedom of expression.   

However, much has changed in the last 10 years. Our work and that of many others has contributed to a 65% reduction in the gender gap within the institutions monitored by the Campaign, a result supported by an average increase of 204% in the number of women running for international positions, including a notable rise of 34% in the number of women candidates from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. Gender parity has been achieved and sustained in key bodies dedicated to protecting women’s rights, such as the Inter-American Court and Commission on Human Rights and the UN Special Procedures and several important institutional and normative developments have supported these changes. These developments include the adoption of 12 UN and OAS resolutions addressing the underrepresentation of women in international bodies, a resolution by the Permanent Court of Arbitration addressing the poor participation of women in the Court for the first time in its history, and two international reports requested by the Human Rights Council and the OAS General Assembly containing best practices and specific recommendations for States and institutions. 

Yet, women remain underrepresented in key international justice spaces. Data shows that the more political, State-controlled, prestigious, and well-paid the international positions are, the harder it is for women to access them on an equal footing. As highlighted by our annually published rankings, States continue to predominantly nominate and elect men, with processes that lack transparency, equality, and meaningful civil society participation. 

The underrepresentation of women is not only acute in international courts and bodies: it is a structural challenge that extends to other areas of decision-making at both the national and international levels, including in diplomacy and multilateralism, trade and development, peace and security, climate change, and arbitration.    

To increase the representation and influence of women in key international decision-making spaces, institutional changes need to happen and gender parity needs to become a permanent, non-negotiable aspect of leadership. International human rights law has a key role in supporting and shaping these institutional changes, by providing clear, binding standards to guide the actions of States and international organizations and to hold them accountable.   

The equal participation of women in international decision-making spaces is not just a matter of fairness, effectiveness, and legitimacy, but a legal obligation enshrined in women’s rights to equality and non-discrimination. While this right, and its particular applicability to international leadership, is included in human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and others, it has not always received all the attention it deserves, and there is little jurisprudential development and practice on its scope. 

This gap prompted us to build on the work of other experts and develop research on the scope of Article 8 of the CEDAW Convention (the main binding treaty norm that addresses women’s equal participation in international leadership), and to advocate early on in partnership with others for the CEDAW Committee to develop a General Recommendation with key guidelines for States to ensure the equal representation of women in all spheres of decision-making. Today, we celebrate the CEDAW Committee’s leadership in addressing these issues through fresh perspectives, and the recently adopted General Recommendation 40 (GR40).   

The Significance of GR40 

Adopted in October 2024, GR 40 represents a comprehensive and bold legal framework, grounded in the binding legal standards of one of the most widely ratified treaties, to achieve “women’s equal and inclusive participation in decision-making systems.”  

The process, which formally began in February 2023,  garnered remarkable support and participation from many States, experts, academics, and civil society organizations related to the topic, coming from diverse areas of the legal and political fields. 

In addition to contributing several formal submissions and participating in regional consultations, GQUAL facilitated a series of expert meetings with CEDAW Members, focused on the particular challenges of women’s international representation. These included a meeting in Washington DC, organized with the Academy of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, that brought together more than 40 experts from diverse  fields and regions; a meeting in Bern, organized with the University of Bern World Trade Institute and the Institute of International Relations Prague, that focused on women’s participation in multilateral and economic spaces; a meeting organized with the Gender and Law Program of the Faculty of Law of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), focused on feminist economies; an online meeting with experts to share comments on earlier GR40 drafts, and several public events. These events are just examples of the rich and diverse views, contributions, and discussions led by the Committee with many actors, which resulted in the celebrated GR.   

The GR40 is transformative for four main reasons. Firstly, it asserts that “equal and inclusive representation” under the treaty must be defined as 50:50 parity between women and men in all their diversity.  In practice, this results in equal access to and equal power within decision-making systems. Parity is defined as both a starting point and universal norm, and a legal principle and a rule of good governance, which requires the sharing of power between women and men as a permanent and core feature of all areas of life.   

Secondly, the GR40 acknowledges that the increasing challenges in our world require that women be provided access, representation, and recognition with the same power and influence to engage in decision-making spaces at the international and multilateral levels. The GR40 acknowledges that critical decisions affecting our daily lives are made at the global level and, as such, international decision-making is an area where gender parity needs to be pioneered, upheld. and ensured.   

Third, GR40 highlights the centrality of Article 8 of the CEDAW Convention as the legal basis to require States to ensure the representation of women in parity with men in international decision-making. As part of that obligation, States must ensure parity in diplomatic appointments and the composition of delegations, develop a foreign policy guided by a gender criterion that makes the empowerment of women and girls a central focus of government policy abroad, and institutionalize parity laws and transparent procedures at the national level for nomination and selection for positions in multilateral and international organizations and bodies.   

Finally, GR40 provides a unifying framework for collective action on women’s equal participation in decision-making at all levels. As such, it has the potential of becoming a powerful tool to drive stronger political consensus, inspire measures from political leaders at the national and international level, promote institutional changes, and support accountability efforts, including through civil society’s advocacy and litigation.   

A Global Symposium to Unite Voices 

A fundamental step in unlocking the full potential of GR40 is to promote its widespread dissemination and discussion. With this goal in mind, this symposium brings together a variety of perspectives on the significance and impact of the GR40 from a diverse group of actors that have been engaged in the development of this important legal tool. Contributions will explore the GR in the context of:  

1. Specific upcoming elections where women are still critically underrepresented, such as the UN Secretary General, or the renewal of members at the International Court of Justice and the International Law Commission.  
2. Specific international decision-making fields and their specific opportunities and challenges, including in international law and justice, multilateralism, climate change negotiations, trade, arbitration, peace and security, and philanthropy.  

1. Regional perspectives and realities that reflect the diverse experiences and challenges faced by women in different parts of the world.    

There is still a long way to go before women, in all their diversity, can enjoy real and complete equality. The current upsetting global context deepens already existing structural challenges, fueled by conflict, authoritarianism, anti-rights and anti-multilateralism agendas, threatening to undermine hard-won achievements and putting the rights of women and minorities at serious risk. 

In this context, it is imperative for those of us who believe that women’s equal and inclusive participation is not only a right, but also a necessary means for achieving a more peaceful and fairer world to strengthen strategies and alliances, and to increase our capacity to hold States and institutions accountable. We believe that international human rights law and developments such as the GR40 can help in these efforts, and hope that the insightful contributions of all the experts participating in this Symposium can inspire more engagement, debate, and concrete actions to realize gender equality.