The Conference of the Parties (COP), at its eighteenth session, decided to promote gender balance and improve the participation of women in UNFCCC negotiations and in the representation of Parties in bodies established pursuant to the Convention or the Kyoto Protocol. The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, at its eighth session, endorsed that decision. The COP invited Parties and observer organizations to submit to the secretariat, by 2 September 2013, their views on options and ways to advance the goal referred to in paragraph 1 above, in order to improve the participation of women and to inform more effective climate change policy that addresses the needs of women and men equally. The secretariat has received 16 such submissions from Parties. In accordance with the procedure for miscellaneous documents, these submissions are attached and reproduced* in the languages in which they were received and without formal editing. In line with established practice, the submissions received from observer organizations have been posted on the UNFCCC website