Sixty-first session Third Committee Agenda item 61 (a) Advancement of women France and the Netherlands: draft resolution Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women The General Assembly, Reaffirming the obligation of all States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and reaffirming also that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments, and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination of all forms of violence against women, Reaffirming further the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, and the Declaration adopted at the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Reaffirming its resolution 60/1 of 16 September 2005, entitled “2005 World Summit Outcome”, Recalling all its previous resolutions on the elimination of violence against women, including resolutions 56/128 of 19 December 2001 on traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women or girls, 58/147 of 22 December 2003 on the elimination of domestic violence against women, 59/165 of 20 December 2004 on working towards the elimination of crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour, 59/166 of 20 December 2004 on trafficking in women and girls and 60/139 of 16 December 2005 on violence against women migrant workers, and Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security, Recalling also its resolutions 58/185 of 22 December 2003 and 60/136 of 16 December 2005, entitled “In-depth study on all forms of violence against women”, Recalling further Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/41 of 19 April 2005 on the elimination of violence against women, Recognizing that violence against women is rooted in historically unequal power relations between men and women and that all forms of violence against women seriously violate the enjoyment of their human rights and constitute a major impediment to the ability of women to make use of their capabilities, including in the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, Recognizing also the serious immediate and long-term implications for health, including sexual and reproductive health, as well as an increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and the impact on psychological, social and economic development that violence against women represents for individuals, families, communities and States, Deeply concerned about the pervasiveness of all forms of violence against women in different forms and manifestations worldwide, and reiterating the need to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women throughout the world, 1. Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General on the in-depth study on violence against women and the recommendations contained therein; 2. Welcomes also the efforts and important contributions at the national, regional and international levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women, and in this respect especially welcomes the important work of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; 3. Stresses that “violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life; 4. Strongly condemns all acts of violence against women, whether these acts are perpetrated by the State, by private persons or by non-State actors, and calls for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence in the family, within the general community and where perpetrated or condoned by the State; 5. Stresses that challenges and obstacles remain in the implementation of international standards and norms to address the inequality between men and women and violence against women in particular, and pledges to intensify action to ensure their full and accelerated implementation; 6. Stresses also that States have an obligation to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls and must exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish all acts of violence against women and to provide protection to the victims, and that not doing so constitutes a violation of human rights; 7. Urges States to take action to eliminate all forms of violence against women by means of a more systematic, comprehensive, multisectoral and sustained approach, adequately supported and facilitated by strong institutional mechanisms and financing, through national action plans and, where appropriate, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, in order to close the gap between international standards and national laws, policies and practices and to this end to: (a) Ensure that all human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, protected and fulfilled; (b) Ratify without reservations all human rights treaties, including, in particular, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women1 and its Optional Protocol, to withdraw all reservations incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention, and to regularly review all other reservations with a view to withdrawing them; (c) Remove all laws that discriminate against women, review and revise all State policies and practices to ensure that they do not discriminate against women and ensure that the provisions of multiple legal systems, where they exist, comply with international human rights standards, including the principle of nondiscrimination; (d) Take positive measures to address structural causes of violence against women and to strengthen prevention efforts that address discriminatory practices and social norms, including with regard to women who need special attention in policies against violence, such as women belonging to minority groups, indigenous groups of women, refugee and internally displaced women, migrant women, women living in underdeveloped, rural or remote communities, destitute women, women in institutions or in detention, women with disabilities, elderly women, widows and women in situations of armed conflict and women who are otherwise discriminated against, including on the basis of HIV status or sexual orientation; (e) Ensure that women have equal access to justice and equal protection of the law and that perpetrators of all forms of violence against women are prosecuted and punished and do not enjoy impunity; (f) Ensure that men and women and boys and girls receive education on women’s rights and on their responsibility to respect the rights of others, inter alia, by integrating women’s rights into appropriate curricula at all levels, including schools and vocational training for health workers, teachers, law enforcement personnel, military personnel, social workers and others; (g) Protect women in conflict, post-conflict and refugee and internally displaced persons settings where women are particularly targeted for violence and their ability to seek and receive redress is restricted, and adopt, in accordance with the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and international human rights norms, and Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), a gender-sensitive approach to the granting of asylum; (h) Institute national plans of action, supported by the necessary human and financial resources, including time-bound, measurable targets, to promote the protection of women against any form of violence, and accelerate the implementation of existing national action plans, that are regularly monitored and updated by Governments in consultation with civil society, in particular, nongovernmental organizations and women’s groups and networks; (i) Allocate adequate resources to promote gender equality and to prevent and redress all forms and manifestations of violence against women; 8. Also urges States to take responsibility for the systematic collection and analysis of data, including with the involvement of national statistical offices and in partnership with other actors; 9. Urges United Nations bodies, programmes and specialized agencies and invites the Bretton Woods institutions to strengthen, within existing resources, the capacity of countries to collect, process and disseminate data and their use for legislative, policy and programme development, to establish a coordinated and accessible United Nations database, as well as analysis and dissemination of data, including data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant factors, on the extent, nature and consequences of all forms of violence against women, including in situations of armed conflict, and on the impact and effectiveness of policies and programmes for combating such violence, and requests the Secretary-General to coordinate these efforts; 10. Also urges United Nations bodies, programmes and specialized agencies and invites Bretton Woods institutions to: (a) Enhance the coordination of their efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women in a more systematic, comprehensive and sustained way at the global level through the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women operating through the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality and supported by the newly established Task Force on Violence against Women, in close collaboration with relevant civil society organizations; (b) Enhance coordination to eliminate all forms of violence against women in a more systematic, comprehensive and sustained way at the national level, inter alia, through United Nations country teams and in close collaboration with relevant participants from civil society, and to adequately assist States in the development or, where appropriate, implementation of national action plans and, where appropriate, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers; 11. Calls upon the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality to consider ways and means to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women as a system-wide funding mechanism for, inter alia, preventing and redressing all forms of violence against women; 12. Urges States to increase significantly the financial support for work on all forms of violence against women in United Nations agencies and programmes, including the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women; 13. Invites the Peacebuilding Commission, the Human Rights Council, the Economic and Social Council and its functional commissions, especially the Commission on the Status of Women, the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Statistical Commission to discuss, by 2008, the question of violence against women in all its forms and manifestations in relation to their mandates, and to set priorities for addressing this issue in their future efforts and work programmes and to transmit the outcome of these discussions to the Secretary-General for his annual report to the General Assembly; 14. Requests the Secretary-General to: (a) Submit one report to the General Assembly on the question of violence against women annually; (b) Include in his report information on the activities of States and United Nations bodies, programmes and specialized agencies in following up the present resolution; (c) Ensure that the report is brought to the attention of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Human Rights Council and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; (d) Develop and propose a set of international indicators for assessing the scope, prevalence and incidence of violence against women, building on existing proposals for indicators on violence against women, as well as on the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences; 15. Decides to continue its consideration of this question at its sixty-second session under the agenda item entitled “Advancement of women”. Resolution 34/180, annex. A/CONF.157/24 (Part I), chap. III. See resolution 48/104. Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5-13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex. Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4-15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. Resolution S-23/2, annex, and resolution S/23/3, annex. See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2005, Supplement No. 7 (E/2005/27), chap. I, para. 1. A/61/122/Add.1. Resolution 54/4, annex. United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545. __________________ __________________  sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/C.3/61/L.10 sss1 \* MERGEFORMAT A/C.3/61/L.10 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 06-56571 \* MERGEFORMAT 4 \* MERGEFORMAT 5 FooterJN \* MERGEFORMAT 06-56571 United Nations A/C.3/61/L.10 General Assembly Distr.: Limited 11 October 2006 Original: English jobn \* MERGEFORMAT 06-56571 (E) 121006 Barcode \* MERGEFORMAT *0656571*