Democratization OSCE/Eugenia Benigni Participants discuss a strategy to monitor women’s rights at a workshop organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the OSCE Centre in Astana, held in Almaty, on 4-8 February 2008. practices and strategies for the promotion of women’s leadership and participation in political life at the national and local levels. The forum gathered women members of local councils from the regions of Chernivtsi, Zaporizhzhya and Kirovohrad, as well as members of the Verkhovna Rada (the national parliament), representatives of the State Chancellery, and various national governmental institutions working on the promotion of gender equality in political decision-making. The forum focused on Ukrainian state policy for the promotion of equal rights and opportunities among women and men, the work of locally elected councils in promoting gender equality, the role of political OSCE/Eugenia Benigni Kazakhstani police women join government officials and civil society representatives to discuss co-operation on promoting and monitoring women’s rights, Almaty, 11 December 2008. 32 Annual Report 2008 parties in fostering women’s participation in political processes and governance structures, and discussions of experiences in this area in other countries, such as Albania, Estonia and Kyrgyzstan. The forum adopted a number of recommendations, including a call for the creation of a National Association of Women Members of Elected Councils. Other areas for co-operation indentified included: the effective implementation of existing legislative provisions for promoting and upholding equal rights and opportunities for men and women in Ukraine; the introduction of amendments to national legislation that would create special mechanisms for increasing women’s representation in elected bodies at different levels of government; and the development of an intra-party approach to gender-balanced candidate lists. Promoting the mainstreaming of gender equality into policy-making In order to strengthen the capacity of participating States to foster gender equality, ODIHR undertakes initiatives aimed at developing expertise, transparency and accountability in