Check against delivery requests States parties to take measures, with benchmarks and concrete timetables, to increase the number of women in political and public life, at all levels and in all areas life. It also recommends that States parties introduce temporary special measures, in accordance with article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention and the Committee’s General Recommendation No. 25 (2004), to strengthen their efforts to promote women to positions of leadership. Measures taken under article 4, paragraph 1, by States parties should aim to accelerate the equal participation of women in all fields, including politics. The Committee views the application of these measures not as an exception to the norm of nondiscrimination, but rather as a necessary strategy by States parties, directed towards the achievement of de facto equality of women with men in the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms. CEDAW makes clear that these temporary special measures do not discriminate against men and are not a form of discrimination if they are being implemented as a means to speed up the achievement of gender equality. Temporary special measures can include a wide range of legislative, executive, administrative and other regulatory instruments, policies and practices, such as outreach or support programmes; allocation and/or reallocation of resources, preferential treatment; targeted recruitment, hiring and promotion; numerical goals connected with timeframes; and quota systems. The emphasis is on the temporary nature of the measures - their duration is determined by their result in response to a concrete problem, and must be discontinued when the desired result has been achieved and sustained for a period of time. In its concluding observations, the CEDAW Committee often calls States to take effective measures, including temporary special measures, to eliminate discrimination against minority women. Gender quotas have emerged as a tool that can be effective to redress women’s exclusion from political participation and to ensure their presence in formal structure of politics. Many countries have introduced a quota system to rectify persisting inequalities suffered by various groups, such as women, or racial, ethnic and religious minorities. For minority women, and although they could benefit from either gender or minority quotas, it remains unclear to which extent they actually benefit from either of them. Research indicates however that minority women are likely to benefit more from quotas when national-level gender and minority quotas are simultaneously in place at the same level and interact with one another, the so called “tandem quotas”. However, gender quotas are only one part of a strategy to empower women to participate in political life. They need to be accompanied by other measures to ensure that barriers to equality are overcome, including those resulting from illiteracy, language, poverty and impediments to women’s freedom of movement. Measures need also to be put in place in assisting women to exercise their political rights. To that end, the Committee routinely urges States to increase the availability of training and capacity-building programs for women wishing to enter or already in public office and to launch awareness-raising campaigns on the importance of women’s participation in political and public life. For example, the Committee recommended to Canada “to ensure that aboriginal, ethnic and minority women are empowered, through encouragement, mentoring opportunities and funding, to participate in the necessary governance and legislative processes that address issues impeding their legal and substantive equality”. But beyond that, women who lack social and economic resources are unable to exercise their political rights fully. 4