A/HRC/12/46 page 17 53. Resolution 6/30, which was adopted without a vote in December 2007, represents an important step forward and a tool to ensure that a gender perspective is included in the Human Rights Council’s work from the outset. What needs to be explored further is how to ensure in practical terms that the Council addresses the rights of women and girls directly, and that it applies a gender lens across all its work, including the universal periodic review, the new and revised special procedure mandates, and its working groups and the Advisory Committee. To this end, the following recommendations are made for the consideration of the Human Rights Council. Cooperation between United Nations agencies 54. There is great expectation surrounding the enhanced, consolidated gender architecture that is being discussed with Member States at United Nations Headquarters. The Human Rights Council could encourage cooperation and coordination between OHCHR and the future consolidated gender architecture. Universal periodic review 55. A preliminary analysis indicates that the State reports and the compilation reports prepared by OHCHR for UPR reflect little of the human rights of women or a gender perspective. Stakeholders have been calling for greater effort by global actors to seize this window of opportunity to strengthen the protection gap with regard to gender-related discrimination and violence, and engage more fully with UPR. The United Nations entities whose main purpose is advancing women’s status and rights can provide a valuable contribution to the compilation reports.24 In turn, that information will assist States, both members of the Council and observers, to ask questions that are timely and specific, and can lead to the identification of practices or areas in need of further attention by the State under review and to assistance from the international community. The Human Rights Council could recommend that such United Nations entities provide as much detailed information as possible on women’s human rights, including sex-disaggregated data wherever possible, to enhance the quality of the UPR process, and encourage them to do so. 56. When preparing their reports, States should consult with NGOs active in addressing gender issues and use disaggregated data to identify gender issues. A paragraph could be included in the “normative framework” section indicating the efforts the State has made to ensure that women are represented in executive decision-making positions, as well as the judicial and legislative areas. Reference could be made throughout the rest of the report to how the domestic policies and programmes described take into account the differential effects on women, men, girls and boys. 24 For example, UNIFEM, the United Nations Population Fund, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, the Division for the Advancement of Women and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.

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