A/HRC/30/70 32. The panellists underlined the importance of education in eliminating stereotypical notions of the role of men and women and masculinity constructs that encouraged violence by men. To transform existing cultures of patriarchy to gender equality, panellists recommended that States model their policies on international standards and share information and practices for education on positive masculinity and for school curricula to include harmful masculinity stereotypes and practices. 33. Panellists welcomed the inclusion of a specific target in the post-2015 agenda on the elimination of violence against women in public and private spheres. III. Panel two: women’s human rights and participation in power and decision-making 34. The panel was composed of the Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, Arancha González; a Parliamentarian and trade-union activist from Bangladesh, Shirin Akhter; a Project Officer from the World YWCA in Benin, Lucrèce Falolou; a Partner at Index Ventures, from France, Michèle Ollier; and a researcher on gender, public policies and public administration from Paraguay, Lilian Soto. The panel was moderated by the Chair of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, Emna Aouij. A. Statement by the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights 35. In her opening remarks, the Deputy High Commissioner welcomed the fact that women had increased their participation in political and public life, in part owing to the adoption of gender-sensitive laws and temporary special measures to accelerate de facto equality. She said that progress, however, was still at a snail’s pace, still far from the 50 per cent parity that should be the objective. At present, women represented a mere 20 per cent of the world’s parliamentarians and 17 per cent of heads of State. Women were also severely underrepresented in top leadership bodies in the economic sphere, they continued to be paid less for work of equal value, and too many were trapped in the informal economy, as well as having to shoulder most of the unpaid work in the home. 36. The Deputy High Commissioner stressed that not enough had been done to ensure women’s participation in peace and security, despite studies indicating that post-conflict agreements negotiated without women broke down faster than those that included women. As barriers to women’s equal enjoyment of the rights to economic and political participation, harmful gender stereotypes significantly affected the rights of women by confining them to roles deemed “appropriate” or “feminine” and resulted in unequal treatment. Deep-seated patriarchal structures, which manifested in discriminatory social, economic and political norms further compounded the issue. 37. The Deputy High Commissioner called for a comprehensive and holistic approach, which must begin at an early age to address these barriers. She said that we needed enabling environments that valued and promoted women and girls and equipped them for leadership positions. And we also needed the commitment of men and boys to equality and nondiscrimination. In addition, political systems needed to fully represent women as well as men, and laws needed to be put in place and implemented that mandated the equality of women and their equal access to resources and opportunities. She said that laws that discriminated against women must be removed. 8