Working Towards the Elimination of Crimes Against Women and Girls Committed in the Name of Honour

A/RES/59/165View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 98 Advancement of women, published in 2005.

What’s in this document?

23 operative paragraphs

Welcomes:

The report of the Secretary-General on violence against women;¹¹

¹¹A/59/281.

The activities and initiatives of States aimed at the elimination of crimes against women committed in the name of honour, including the adoption of amendments to relevant national laws relating to such crimes, the effective implementation of such laws and educational, social and other measures, including national information and awareness-raising campaigns, as well as activities and initiatives of States aimed at the elimination of all other forms of violence against women;

The efforts, such as projects, undertaken by United Nations bodies, funds and programmes, including the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Development Fund for Women, to address the issue of crimes against women committed in the name of honour, and encourages them to coordinate their efforts;

The work carried out by civil society, including non-governmental organizations, such as women’s organizations, grass-roots movements and individuals, in raising awareness of such crimes and their harmful effects;

Expresses its concern that women continue to be victims of crimes committed in the name of honour, and at the continuing occurrence in all regions of the world of such violence, which takes many different forms, and at failures to prosecute and punish perpetrators;

Calls upon all States:

To fulfil their obligations under the relevant international human rights instruments and to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action7 and the outcome document of the special session of the General Assembly;8

To continue to intensify efforts to prevent and eliminate crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour, which take many different forms, by using legislative, administrative and programmatic measures;

To investigate promptly and thoroughly, prosecute effectively and document cases of crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour and punish the perpetrators;

To intensify efforts to raise awareness of the need to prevent and eliminate crimes against women and girls committed and condoned in the name of honour, with the aim of changing the attitudes and behaviour that allow such crimes to be committed by involving, inter alia, community leaders;

To intensify efforts to raise awareness about the responsibility of men to promote gender equality and bring about change in attitudes to eliminate gender stereotypes, including, specifically, their role in preventing crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour;

To encourage the efforts of the media to engage in awareness-raising campaigns;

To encourage, support and implement measures and programmes aimed at increasing the knowledge and understanding of the causes and consequences of crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour, including the provision of training for those responsible for enforcing the law, such as police personnel and judicial and legal personnel, and to strengthen their capacity to respond to complaints of such crimes in an impartial and effective manner and take necessary measures to ensure the protection of actual and potential victims;

To continue to support the work of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, in addressing this issue and to strengthen cooperation with intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations;

To establish, strengthen or facilitate, where possible, support services to respond to the needs of actual and potential victims by, inter alia, providing for them the appropriate protection, safe shelter, counselling, legal aid, health-care services, including in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, psychological health and other relevant areas, rehabilitation and reintegration into society;

To address effectively complaints of crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour, inter alia, by creating, strengthening or facilitating institutional mechanisms so that victims and others can report such crimes in a safe and confidential environment;

To gather and disseminate statistical information on the occurrence of such crimes, including information disaggregated by sex and age, and to make any such information available to the Secretariat for use in the in-depth study on violence against women, in accordance with resolution 58/185, and the in-depth study on violence against children, in accordance with resolution 57/190;

To include, where appropriate, in their reports to the human rights treaty bodies information on legal and policy measures adopted and implemented in their efforts to prevent and eliminate crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour;

Invites:

The international community, including relevant United Nations bodies, funds and programmes, inter alia, through technical assistance and advisory services programmes, to support the efforts of all countries, at their request, aimed at strengthening institutional capacity for preventing crimes against women and girls committed in the name of honour and at addressing the root causes of such crimes;

The relevant human rights treaty bodies, where appropriate, and the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, its causes and consequences to continue to address this issue;

Requests the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the present resolution in his report on the question of violence against women to the General Assembly at its sixtieth session.

Working Towards the Elimination of Crimes Against Women and Girls Committed in the Name of Honour

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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