CCPR, GC 25, p.11: Voter education and registration campaigns are necessary to ensure the effective exercise of article 25 rights by an informed community. p. 12: Positive measures should be taken to overcome specific difficulties, such as illiteracy, language barriers, poverty, or impediments to freedom of movement which prevent persons entitled to vote from exercising their rights effectively. Information and materials about voting should be available in minority languages. Specific methods, such as photographs and symbols, should be adopted to ensure that illiterate voters have adequate information on which to base their choice. States parties should indicate in their reports the manner in which the difficulties highlighted in this paragraph are dealt with. p. 20: […] Electors should be fully informed of these guarantees. CRC/C/NOR/CO/4, Norway (2010), p. 25: [...] in line with article 29 of the Convention, to ensure that the pilot project on voting from the age of 16 is appropriately supported through the provision of civic and human rights education and that impact of the project on the citizenship role of adolescents is evaluated. CRC/C/AUT/CO/3-4, Austria (2012), p. 28: While noting that the voting age was lowered from 18 to 16 years in 2007 and that the right to participation is protected in article 4 of the Federal Constitutional Law on the rights of children, the Committee recommends that the State party conduct research to monitor the impact of the lowering of the voting age and educate children on the exercise of the right to vote in an effective manner. The Committee also recommends that the State party take into account its General Comment no. 12 (2009) and take effective measures to implement the right of the child to participation in relevant matters arising under the Convention. 11.3 Are there provisions targeting civic and voter education for women? Equality Between Men and Women; States Must Take Necessary Steps to Give Effect to Rights CEDAW, Art. 7: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right: (a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies; (b) To participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government; (c) To participate in non-governmental organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country. ICCPR, Art. 2(2): Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such laws or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant. CEDAW, GR 3 (1987): [The Committee] urges all States parties effectively to adopt education and public information programmes, which will help eliminate prejudices and current practices that hinder the full operation of the principle of the social equality of women. CEDAW/C/OMN/CO/1, Oman (2011), p. 32: The Committee calls upon the State party to: (c) Develop training and mentoring programmes for women candidates and women elected to public office as well as programmes on leadership and negotiation skills for current and future women leaders. CEDAW/C/ETH/CO/6-7, Ethiopia (2011), p. 27: The Committee recommends that the State party: (d) provide training on gender equality to politicians, journalists and decision makers, especially men, to enhance the understanding that the full, equal, free and democratic participation of women and men in political and public life is a requirement for the full implementation of the Convention. 11.4 Are there provisions prescribing civic and voter education concerning minority rights? States Must Take Necessary Steps to Give Effect to Rights ICCPR, Art. 2(2): Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such laws or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant. ICERD, Art. 5: In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: (c) Political rights, in particular the right to participate in elections—to vote and to stand for election—on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in the Government as well as in the conduct of public affairs at any level and to have equal access to public service; (v) The right to education and training. 162 International IDEA