UN Commission on Human Rights

This report focused on States' compliance with their international obligations with respect to domestic violence, specifically in the context of family situations, and refers to the 1996 report of the Special Rapporteur (E/CN4/1996/53), where the Special Rapporteur adopted an expansive definition of violence in the family to include violence that targets women because of their role in the domestic sphere or violence that targeted directly or indirectly at women within the family context. The Special Rapporteur cites General Recommendation 19 under CEDAW to

This report emphasizes States' responsibility to eradicate violence in the family, including violence tolerated on the basis of arguments of cultural relativism. The Special Rapporteur identifies various cultural practices that are discriminatory against women in the community and provides recommendations on ways to eliminate these practices. The Special Rapporteur suggests that States develop penal, civil and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish violence in the family and provide redress to women victims, even where the

This Commission on Human Rights resolution places emphasis on a States' duty to promote and protect the rights of women and girls and discusses the due diligence standard for States. In the report, the Commission also urges States to integrate a gender perspective into all efforts to end impunity and into commissions of inquiry and commissions for achieving truth and reconciliation. States are also requested to provide gender-sensitive training to all actors in peacekeeping missions involving victims, as appropriate, and to integrate a gender

This report reviews developments in the international community's approach to violence against women between 1994 and 2002, noting specific events that took place in that time period that lead to women's rights being recognized as human rights and women being afforded an international venue to claim remedies when all domestic judicial mechanisms were exhausted. The report also notes there have been significant developments with regards to the States obligations under the due diligence standard and governments are expected to actively intervene even if

This report analyzes the interconnections between VAW and HIV/AIDS, considering violence to be both a cause and consequence of HIV/AIDS. Discrimination against women, due to gender inequality, is compounded at the intersection of patriarchy and other sites of oppression, which subjugate women to a continuum of violence and make them susceptible to HIV/AIDS. As a result, women with HIV/AIDS are subjected to even further stigmas, and suffer from social ostracism, withdrawal of family care, loss of property rights, and even further violence. The Special

This report summarizes the extensive consultations between United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, civil society and governments on the issue of HIV/AIDS and human rights. The outcome of these consultations were the Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, which state the importance of providing community support for vulnerable groups including women. The background report recognizes women as a vulnerable group and examines their specific experience with HIV/AIDS.