Intensification of Efforts to Prevent and Eliminate All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls : Domestic Violence

A/RES/71/170View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 27 Advancement of women, published in 2016.

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report · 2018

Year	Symbol	Title		Mandate resolution
2018	A/73/294	Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls report of the Secretary-General		A/RES/71/170

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 subjects

Crime Prevention Crime Victims Domestic Violence Empowerment Gender-Based Violence Women's Rights

What’s in this document?

46 operative paragraphs

Calls upon all States to implement the commitment to eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;11

Stresses that “violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women and girls, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life, including online, and notes the economic and social harm caused by such violence;

Recognizes that violence against women and girls is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits their ability to enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms and is rooted in gender inequality, deeply embedded negative social norms and stereotypes, poverty, inequality in the economic, social and cultural spheres and unequal power relations between men and women;

Stresses that domestic violence can take many different forms, including physical, psychological and sexual violence, economic deprivation and isolation, and neglect, and occurs within the family or domestic unit and generally between current or former partners or individuals who are related through blood or intimacy;

Strongly condemns all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, while recognizing that it is an impediment to the achievement of gender equality and to the full realization of their human rights, and while expressing concern that domestic violence is the most prevalent and least visible form of violence against women and girls and that its consequences are long-lasting and profound and affect many areas in the lives of victims;

Recognizes that violence against women and girls persists in every country in the world as a pervasive violation, abuse or impairment of human rights and is a major impediment to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, sustainable development, peace, security and the internationally agreed development goals, in particular the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Urges States to condemn violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, and reaffirms that they should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination and should pursue, by all appropriate means and without delay, a policy of eliminating violence against women as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women;7

Stresses that, despite the important steps taken by many countries around the world, States should continue to focus on the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, as well as on their protection, their empowerment and the provision of services, and should therefore implement laws, policies and programmes for ending all forms of violence against women and girls and monitor and rigorously evaluate their implementation and improve, where possible, their impact, accessibility and effectiveness;

Also stresses the importance of ensuring that, in armed conflict and post-conflict situations and in natural disaster situations, the prevention of and response to all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual and gender-based violence, are prioritized and effectively addressed, including, as appropriate, through the investigation, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators to end impunity, the removal of barriers to women’s access to justice, the establishment of complaint and reporting mechanisms and the provision of support to victims and survivors;

Further stresses the need to leave no one behind in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in this regard recognizes the challenges faced by refugee and migrant women and girls and the need to protect and empower them, including in countries in conflict and post-conflict situations, and the need to strengthen the resilience of communities hosting refugees, and underscores the importance of development support for those communities, particularly in developing countries;

Stresses the need to address discrimination based on multiple and intersecting factors, which places women and girls at greater risk of exploitation, violence and abuse, and to take appropriate action to empower and protect them;

Recognizes that violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, can take the form of an isolated act or pattern of abusive behaviour that may occur over a period of time, which as a pattern constitutes violence against women and girls, and can occur in digital and online spaces and include cyberbullying and cyberstalking;

Notes that efforts by civil society organizations in eliminating violence against women, including domestic violence, can be complementary to those of Governments, and in this regard urges States to support, where possible, initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality and at preventing, responding to and protecting women and girls from domestic violence;

Calls upon States to take effective action to prevent and eliminate domestic violence without delay, including by:

Adopting, strengthening and implementing legislation that prohibits domestic violence and adequately penalizes offences involving physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence occurring in families, and establishing adequate legal protection against such violence, including victim and witness protection from reprisals for bringing complaints or giving evidence;

Preventing violations and taking steps to prevent abuses of all human rights of women and girls, devoting particular attention to abolishing practices and legislation that discriminate against women and girls, including, as applicable, provisions in civil, criminal and personal status law governing marriage and family relations, eliminating prejudices, harmful practices and gender stereotypes and raising awareness of the unacceptability of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, at all levels throughout their life course;

Accelerating efforts to develop, review and strengthen inclusive and gender-responsive policies, including by allocating adequate resources, to address the structural and underlying causes of domestic violence against women and girls, to overcome gender stereotypes and negative social norms, to encourage the media to examine the impact of gender-role stereotypes, including those perpetuated by commercial advertisements, that foster gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and inequalities, to promote zero tolerance for such violence and to remove the stigma of being a victim and survivor of violence, thus creating an enabling and accessible environment where women and girls can easily report incidents of violence and make use of the services available, including protection and assistance programmes;

Taking measures to ensure that all officials responsible for implementing policies and programmes aimed at preventing violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, protecting and assisting the victims and investigating and punishing acts of violence receive ongoing, adequate and gender- and culturally sensitive training to be aware of gender-specific needs, as well as of the underlying causes and short- and long-term impact of domestic violence;

Evaluating and assessing the impact of current legislation, rules and procedures regarding violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, with a view to ensuring access to justice, improving rates of reporting and addressing the high attrition rate from reporting to conviction, and reinforcing, where necessary, criminal law and procedure relating to all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, with a focus on prevention and the protection of women and accessible and effective redress for victims;

Ensuring the promotion and protection of the human rights of all women and their sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development,9 the Beijing Platform for Action8 and the outcome documents of their review conferences, including through the development and enforcement of policies and legal frameworks and the strengthening of health systems that make universally accessible and available quality, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health-care services, commodities, information and education, including safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, prevention programmes for adolescent pregnancy, maternal health care such as skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, which will reduce obstetric fistula and other complications of pregnancy and delivery, safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law, and prevention and treatment of reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, HIV and reproductive cancers, recognizing that human rights include the right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and violence;

Urges States to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors so as to prevent domestic violence, including by:

Investing in the full realization of the right to education by, inter alia, eliminating illiteracy, developing equitable, quality, inclusive and gender-sensitive educational programmes, in particular in rural and remote areas, and by closing the gender gap at all levels of education, thereby ensuring that women and men and girls and boys are portrayed in positive, non-stereotypical roles and contributing to the empowerment of women and girls and to the elimination of domestic violence and all other forms of violence against women and girls;

Emphasizing the important role that men and boys can play in preventing and eliminating violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, and further developing and implementing measures that reinforce non-violent actions, attitudes and values and encourage men and boys to take an active part and become strategic partners and allies in the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls, in order to break intergenerational cycles of violence;

Promoting awareness among all stakeholders of the need to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls occurring in public or private life and promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, inter alia through the regular and repeated use and funding of awareness-raising campaigns nationwide and other ways to promote prevention and protection and the transformation of discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes, as part of an integrated prevention strategy;

Taking measures to empower women by, inter alia, strengthening their economic autonomy and ensuring their full and equal participation in society and in decision-making processes by adopting and implementing social and economic policies that guarantee women full and equal access to quality education and training and affordable and adequate public and social services, as well as full and equal access to financial resources and decent work, and full and equal rights to own and have access to and control over land and other property, and guaranteeing women’s and girls’ inheritance rights, and taking further appropriate measures to address the increasing rate of homelessness of and inadequate housing for women in order to reduce their vulnerability to violence;

Adopting all appropriate measures in the field of education to modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women of all ages in order to promote the development of respectful relations and to eliminate prejudices, harmful customary practices and all other practices based on the idea of the inferiority or superiority of either of the sexes and on stereotyped roles for men and women, and raising awareness of the unacceptability of violence against women and girls at all levels, in the public and private spheres;

Committing themselves to accelerate efforts to scale up scientifically accurate age-appropriate comprehensive education that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men, in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, with information on sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and women’s empowerment, human rights, physical, psychological and pubertal development and power in relationships between women and men, to enable them to build self-esteem and informed decision-making, communication and risk reduction skills and develop respectful relationships, in full partnership with young people, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators and health-care providers, in order to end domestic violence;

Preventing, combating and eliminating trafficking in women and girls by criminalizing all forms of trafficking in persons, as well as by raising public awareness of the issue of trafficking in persons, particularly women and girls, including the factors that make women and girls vulnerable to trafficking, and eliminating the demand that fosters all forms of exploitation and forced labour, and encouraging, where appropriate, the media to play a role with a view to eliminating the exploitation of women and children;

Also urges States to take effective action to protect victims of all forms of violence, including domestic violence, including by:

Providing relevant, comprehensive and victim-centred legal protection to support and assist victims of domestic violence in a gender-sensitive manner, within the framework of their national legal systems, including, as appropriate, legislative or other measures throughout the criminal and civil justice system;

Establishing comprehensive, coordinated, interdisciplinary, accessible and sustained multisectoral services, programmes and responses for all victims and survivors of all forms of violence, including domestic violence, that are adequately resourced, include effective and coordinated action by, as appropriate, relevant stakeholders, such as the police and the justice sector, as well as providers of legal aid services, health-care services, medical and psychological assistance, counselling services and protection, and, in cases of girl victims, ensure that such services, programmes and responses take into account the best interests of the child;

Providing for access to appropriate remedies for victims and survivors, and ensuring the protection and empowerment of women and girls, including through adequate enforcement by the police and the judiciary of civil remedies, orders of protection and criminal sanctions;

Establishing and/or strengthening police and health workers’ response protocols and procedures to ensure that all appropriate actions are taken to protect victims of domestic violence, to identify acts of violence and to prevent further acts of violence and psychological harm, taking into account the need to ensure and maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the victim;

Putting in place measures, and where they exist, expanding such measures, in order to ensure the availability and accessibility, for victims and survivors and their children, of services, programmes and opportunities for their full recovery and reintegration into society, as well as full access to justice, and ensuring the provision of adequate and timely information on available support services and legal measures, when possible in a language that they understand and in which they can communicate;

Encourages States to systematically collect, analyse and disseminate data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant parameters, including, where appropriate, administrative data from the police, the health sector and the judiciary, to monitor all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, such as data on the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim and geographical location, with the involvement of national statistical offices and, where appropriate, in partnership with other actors, including law enforcement agencies, in order to effectively review and implement laws, policies, strategies and preventive and protective measures, while ensuring and maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the victims;

Urges the international community, including the United Nations system and, as appropriate, regional and subregional organizations, to support national efforts to promote the empowerment of women and girls and gender equality in order to enhance national efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, including, upon request, in the development and implementation of national action plans on the elimination of violence against women and girls, through, inter alia, official development assistance and other appropriate assistance, such as facilitating the sharing of guidelines, methodologies and best practices, taking into account national priorities;

Stresses that, within the United Nations system, adequate resources should be assigned to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and other bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality, the empowerment of women and the human rights of women and girls and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, and calls upon the United Nations system to make the necessary support and resources available;

Also stresses the importance of the Secretary-General’s Global Database on Violence against Women, expresses its appreciation to all those States that have provided the Database with information regarding, inter alia, their national policies and legal frameworks aimed at eliminating violence against women and girls and supporting victims of such violence, strongly encourages all States to regularly provide updated information for the Database, and calls upon all relevant entities of the United Nations system to continue to support States, at their request, in the compilation and regular updating of pertinent information and to raise awareness of the Database among all relevant stakeholders, including civil society;

Acknowledges the work of the Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat, as requested by the Statistical Commission, on the development of guidelines to support the production by Member States of statistics on violence against women and girls;

Calls upon all United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies and invites the Bretton Woods institutions to intensify their efforts at all levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and to better coordinate their work with a view to increasing effective support for national efforts to prevent and eliminate domestic violence against women and girls;

Requests the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on violence against women, its causes and consequences to present an annual report to the General Assembly at its seventy-second and seventy-third sessions;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-third session a report containing:

Information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies on their follow-up activities to implement resolution 69/147 and the present resolution, including on their assistance to States in their efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls;

Information provided by States on their follow-up activities to implement the present resolution;

Also requests the Secretary-General to present an oral report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its sixty-first and sixty-second sessions including information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies on recent follow-up activities to implement resolutions 67/144 and 69/147 and the present resolution, and urges United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies to contribute promptly to that report;

Decides to continue its consideration of the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls at its seventy-third session under the item entitled “Advancement of women”.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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