Since the early 90s, the Council of Europe has developed considerable experience in working with the Central Electoral Commissions and civil society to support participation in elections and in political life of citizens, with a special emphasis on women.

Tailor made electoral programmes are elaborated by the Division of Electoral Assistance to strengthen participation of women both as candidates and voters inter alia by increasing women’s awareness on the importance of elections and by familiarising voters on issues of women participation.

Below is presented a non-exhaustive list of activities that the Division of Electoral Assistance and Census may carry out on demand:

• Offering a practical and impact-oriented package of information and tools through the development of toolkits consisting of comparative studies, case-studies and lists of recommendations from Council of Europe’s standard setting, tailor-made assessment tools
• Addressing the reasons of women underrepresentation in politics and ensuring exchange of information on practices that work through seminars, roundtables with members of parliaments, political parties
• Helping political parties to draft and sign a charter of commitments to women’s rights
• Identifying, celebrating and disseminating interesting experience aimed at strengthening the participation of women in elections through the organisation of European Best Practices contest
• Encouraging women to engage in politics through awareness-raising activities

• Armenia [English + Armenian]
• Belarus | Belarusian version
• Georgia
• Republic of Moldova | Romanian version
• Ukraine

• Regional study on women’s political representation in the eastern partnership countries (April 2017)
• Handbook on increasing women’s political participation in Georgia