A/HRC/40/65 mechanisms. About 50 per cent of the universal periodic review recommendations made to Georgia involved legislative amendments, or the adoption of new legislation. The Committee had recently started receiving shadow reports from civil society and Ms. Kiladze said that it took their recommendations seriously. She emphasized the importance of parliamentarians being involved in the Human Rights Council’s work and said that this deserved attention and resources. She recommended that States facilitate the involvement of parliaments in the universal periodic review, in preparations, as part of the national delegation to the universal periodic review and in overseeing the implementation of the recommendations accepted by the Government. Such cooperation would be enhanced by having a parliamentary human rights committee. 60. Ms. Ameline introduced the work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women-IPU Working Group. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was the only human rights treaty body to have a policy on cooperation with parliaments and IPU. She remarked that connections between parliaments and the human rights treaty bodies were essential. Parliamentarians should be included in meetings with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and be involved in implementing the Committee’s recommendations. She highlighted parliament’s role in transposing international human rights treaties into domestic law. She said that parliaments should work to withdraw reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. She also said that parliaments must be representative of the people they served. Referring to the global average of women in parliament, 23 per cent, she argued that this was insufficient and the debate on gender parity had not gone far enough. Women must participate in politics and there should be 50 per cent female parliamentarians, with women fully involved in decision-making processes. She referred to Sustainable Development Goal 5, saying that States had recognized the role of gender equality in achieving sustainable development. She noted that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women worked with States to make sure that the Convention and the Sustainable Development Goals were implemented together. She also called for Sustainable Development Goals implementation programmes to have a gender perspective. She called for parliaments to show solidarity through regional cooperation, be open to civil society, and empower women. 61. Ms. Lifaka detailed the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s work to develop the ability of parliamentarians to promote and protect human rights, which had resulted in the Mahé Declaration, for Africa, of 2014; the Pipitea Declaration, for the Pacific, of 2015; and the Kotte Declaration, for Asia, of 2016. These were a pioneering attempt by parliamentarians to ensure that parliaments promoted and protected human rights, including by supporting the implementation of United Nations human rights mechanisms’ recommendations and scrutinizing government policy and practice for compliance with States’ international human rights obligations. Ms. Lifaka regarded the declarations as contributions to potential international principles or guidelines on the role of parliaments in the promotion and protection of human rights. She referred to the establishment of regional Commonwealth parliamentary human rights groups to turn the declarations into reality, such as the Commonwealth Africa Parliamentary Human Rights Group. She also described how, pursuant to the Mahé Declaration, a Kenyan parliamentarian had established the Kenya Parliamentary Human Rights Association, a cross-party human rights caucus. Ms. Lifaka said that approximately 28 per cent of parliaments in Commonwealth countries had established human rights committees. In some Commonwealth countries, parliaments endeavoured to ensure that every parliamentary committee considered human rights. Ms. Lifaka noted that the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities Network had been established in 2017 and advocated for greater inclusion of persons with disabilities in politics and parliaments. She referred to the founding of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians in 1989, which was aimed at increasing the number of female elected representatives in parliaments and legislatures across the Commonwealth and ensuring that issues affecting women were included in parliamentary debate. It provided capacity-building for women parliamentarians and improved the ability of all parliamentarians to include a gender-based perspective in their legislative, oversight and representation functions, thereby helping parliaments to become more gender-sensitive. Ms. Lifaka underlined parliamentarians’ responsibility to keep 15