Taking Action Against Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls

Urges Member States to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish acts of violence against women and girls, in accordance with national laws;

Also urges Member States to consider undertaking institutional initiatives, as appropriate, to improve the prevention of gender-related killing of women and girls and the provision of legal protection, including appropriate remedies, reparation and compensation, to the victims of such crimes, in accordance with applicable national and international law and taking into account, as appropriate, the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power;¹²

Invites Member States to adopt a variety of measures, including preventive measures and the enactment and implementation of legislation, that address gender-related killing of women and girls and to periodically review those measures with a view to improving them;

Urges Member States, acting at all levels, to end impunity by ensuring accountability and punishing perpetrators of those heinous crimes against women and girls;

Also urges Member States, as appropriate, to consider designing, implementing and evaluating comprehensive programmes aimed at preventing all forms of violence against women and girls and reducing related vulnerabilities of victims, as well as those risks unique to perpetrators of gender-related killing of women and girls, including by conducting research focused on public education and interventions that target those vulnerabilities and risks;

Invites Member States to strengthen the criminal justice response to gender-related killing of women and girls, in particular measures to support the capacity of Member States to investigate, prosecute and punish all forms of such crime and provide reparation and/or compensation to victims and their families or dependents, as appropriate, in accordance with national laws;

Also invites Member States to address the existing problems of underreporting by enhancing data collection and analysis, as well as sharing relevant data, in accordance with national laws, and related information on gender-related killing of women and girls, in order to inform the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of laws, policies and programmes;

Calls upon Member States to give due consideration to the updated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal JusticeError: Reference source not found in order to strengthen national responses to gender-related killing of women and girls;

Encourages relevant United Nations entities and agencies, in particular the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), to support Member States in developing and implementing strategies and policies, upon request, at the national, regional and international levels to address and prevent gender-related killing of women and girls;

Encourages the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the institutes of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme network to facilitate the gathering and dissemination of relevant and reliable data and other related information to be provided by Member States on their efforts to implement the present resolution;

Requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the institutes of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme network to continue conducting and coordinating relevant research on gender-related killing of women and girls, particularly in connection with the standardization of the collection and analysis of data;

Encourages relevant United Nations entities and agencies, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN-Women, and other specialized funds and programmes of the United Nations, to raise awareness among Member States regarding gender-related killing of women and girls;

Invites Member States to provide the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime with information related to best practices and other relevant information related to the investigation and prosecution of these crimes, in accordance with national legislation, and in that regard encourages civil society organizations and academia to share relevant information with the Office;

Requests the Secretary-General to convene an open-ended intergovernmental expert group meeting to discuss ways and means to more effectively prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish gender-related killing of women and girls, with a view to making practical recommendations, drawing also on current best practices, in consultation with relevant United Nations entities and human rights mechanisms, and welcomes the offer of the Government of Thailand to act as host to that meeting;

Invites Member States to give due consideration to ending violence against women and girls, as well as to the realization of gender equality and empowerment of women in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

Invites Member States and other donors to provide extrabudgetary contributions for the purposes described above, in accordance with the rules and procedures of the United Nations;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its seventieth session on the implementation of the present resolution.