CEDAW, GR 25 (2004), p. 35: The Committee draws attention to and reiterates its General Recommendation No. 9, on statistical data concerning the situation of women, and recommends that States parties provide statistical data disaggregated by sex in order to measure the achievement of progress towards women’s de facto or substantive equality and the effectiveness of temporary special measures. CEDAW/A/57/38, Yemen (2002), p. 402: While welcoming the State party’s plans to ensure women’s participation in the upcoming electoral registration process, the Committee is concerned about the low rate of registration of women as voters and their low representation on electoral lists and in political decision-making bodies. p. 403: The Committee requests the State party to take measures to increase the political representation of women as voters and as candidates at all levels [...]. CEDAW/C/PAK/CO/4 Pakistan, (2013), p. 26: The Committee calls upon the State party to establish a procedure for filing complaints in cases of forced disenfranchisement of women and adopt the draft bill submitted by the Election Commission of Pakistan, advocating re-polling where less than 10 per cent of women’s votes were polled. 13.5 Does the legal framework provide effective measures to include minorities on the voter register? States Must Take Necessary Steps to Give Effect to Rights; Right and Opportunity to Vote 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. ICCPR, Art. 25: Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions: (b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors. ICCPR, Art. 26: All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. ICERD, Art. 5: [...] 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; (d)(iii) The right to nationality. A/HRC/13/25 (Forum on Minority Issues, 2010), p. 26: Where citizenship is a requirement for voting, election to political office or appointment to a position in the public service, there should be a reasonable process for attaining such citizenship that is clearly defined, widely communicated and nondiscriminatory with regard to race, ethnicity or religion. The process should not be prohibitive or present deterrents, such as being unduly lengthy, costly or otherwise burdensome for persons who meet the requirements. A/HRC/7/19/Add.5 (SR on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, 2008), p. 110: Measures undertaken by the government and implemented by the central electoral board, including via the establishment of a separate birth registration regime for newborns of Haitian descent, onerous requirements for late registration of births, or denial or revocation of cédulas belonging to people born in the Dominican Republic, constitute acts which deny constitutionally granted citizenship to persons belonging to this minority group, along with their children, thus rendering them stateless […]. CCPR/C/NIC/CO/3, Nicaragua, (2008), p. 20: While the Committee notes that the State party has partly complied with the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the YATAMA case, it regrets that it has not undertaken the necessary legislative reform to introduce a simple legal remedy ensuring that indigenous and ethnic communities in the autonomous regions can take effective part in elections with due regard for their traditions, conventions and customs (Arts. 25 and 27). 184 International IDEA