Elimination of Domestic Violence

A/HRC/RES/57/18View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2024.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

9 topics

Ageing Persons Anti-Discrimination Measures Crime Prevention Domestic Violence Gender-Based Violence Persons with Disabilities Rights of the Child Social Policy Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

25 operative paragraphs

Stresses that domestic violence is a human rights issue, a societal problem and a public concern and that it is critical for States to fulfil their obligations to respect, protect and promote human rights and freedoms for all and to take serious action to prevent and eliminate domestic violence and protect those subjected to this form of violence, and reaffirms that States should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid the implementation of their obligations under international human rights law;

Strongly condemns and calls for the elimination of domestic violence, while recognizing that it is an impediment to the full realization of human rights and freedoms for all and to the achievement of gender equality and while expressing concern that domestic violence is the most prevalent and least visible form of violence and that its consequences are long-lasting and profound and affect many areas in the lives of those subjected to it;

Encourages all States to take effective action:

To prevent and eliminate domestic violence against women and girls, as they are disproportionately affected by such violence, paying particular attention to abolishing practices and laws that discriminate against women and girls, including, where applicable, provisions in civil, criminal and personal status laws governing marriage and family relations, eliminating harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage, countering prejudices, gender stereotypes and negative social norms, providing human rights education and raising awareness of the unacceptability of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, at all levels and throughout their life cycle;

To empower women and strengthen their economic independence, including through equal remuneration for equal work and increased job opportunities, as well as equal access to and control over economic resources, including land, credit, microcredit and traditional saving schemes such as women’s banks and cooperatives, and by ensuring women’s equal rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality, property rights and the right to inheritance, with a view to reducing women’s vulnerability to all forms of violence, including domestic violence;

To prevent and protect children from domestic violence, including children with disabilities, migrant children, Indigenous children, children of African descent and children in vulnerable situations, whether they are victims through witnessing or experiencing domestic violence, as is necessary for their well-being, taking into account the rights, responsibilities and duties of parents, legal guardians or other individuals legally responsible for children to protect them, and to this end to take all appropriate and legislative and administrative measures, taking into account the best interests of the child as a primary consideration;

To take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, educational and other measures to protect persons with disabilities, both within and outside the home, from all forms of exploitation, violence and abuse, and to ensure that all facilities and programmes designed to serve persons with disabilities are effectively monitored by independent authorities;

To adopt and implement non-discriminatory policies, national strategies, action plans, legislation and regulations, including in response to domestic violence, abuse and neglect, and to ensure the enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms of older persons related to, inter alia, employment, social protection, housing, education and training, access to technologies and the provision of financial, social, healthcare, long-term support and palliative care services;

To establish measures to ensure accountability with regard to domestic violence without any discrimination, including in relation to those living in rural and remote areas, older persons, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, persons of African descent, persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and persons with disabilities;

To engage meaningfully in the 30-year review and appraisal of progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action;

Calls upon States to take effective action to prevent and eliminate domestic violence without delay and to support and protect all victims and, where applicable, survivors, by:

Adopting, strengthening and implementing legislation that prohibits domestic violence involving physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence and threats thereof, including violence that occurs through or is amplified by the use of technology, and providing adequate legal protection against all forms of violence in the public and private spheres, including victim and witness protection from reprisals for bringing complaints or giving evidence;

Establishing appropriate mechanisms to detect situations of violence against victims of domestic violence by other family members and third parties, including appropriate mechanisms for reporting cases of domestic violence;

Adopting and/or strengthening policies and legislation, including, as appropriate, legislative or other measures throughout the criminal and civil justice system, in order to strengthen preventive measures and protect the rights of persons subjected to domestic violence, ensuring proper investigation and prosecution of perpetrators and adopting policies with regard to the rehabilitation of perpetrators;

Providing relevant, comprehensive and victim- and survivor-centred legal aid and other essential and free or affordable services to support and assist victims of domestic violence, including by providing remedies and reparations where available, within the framework of their national legal systems, as well as victim- and survivor-centred education and training for front-line service providers, legal and justice system staff and other service providers;

Taking measures to ensure that all officials and relevant professionals dealing with victims or perpetrators of domestic violence or responsible for implementing policies and programmes aimed at preventing and detecting 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-, age- and disability-specific needs, as well as on the enjoyment of human rights by victims, how to prevent secondary victimization and the underlying causes and short- and long-term impact of domestic violence;

Working to establish comprehensive, coordinated, interdisciplinary, accessible and sustained multisectoral services, programmes and responses for all victims and survivors of domestic violence that respect the privacy and confidentiality of the victim and survivor, are adequately resourced, are survivor-centred and trauma-informed, 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, healthcare services, including, among others, sexual and reproductive healthcare services, medical and psychological assistance, counselling services, protection and childcare services, and, in cases of child victims, ensuring that such services, programmes and responses take into account the best interests of the child, as applicable;

Developing measures and, where they exist, expanding such measures, in order to ensure the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality, for victims and survivors and their children, of services, programmes and opportunities to support them to cope and recover, 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;

Developing and implementing educational programmes, including those based on scientific evidence and teaching materials in accessible, affordable and alternative formats of communication, including easy-to-read and understand formats, that raise educators’ and learners’ awareness of what constitutes domestic violence and how to identify abusive behaviour, and ensuring that teaching materials are aimed at promoting zero tolerance for domestic violence and at removing the stigma of being a victim and survivor, thus creating an enabling and accessible environment where those subjected to domestic violence can easily report cases of domestic violence;

Welcomes major contributions made by civil society, including women’s rights and community-based organizations, national human rights institutions and the media, in efforts to eliminate domestic violence, notes that these efforts are complementary to those of Governments, and in this regard urges States to support, where possible, initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and at preventing, responding to and protecting those subjected to domestic violence and to encourage the efforts of the media to engage in awareness-raising campaigns;

Encourages States to systematically collect, analyse and disseminate data disaggregated by relevant parameters, including, where appropriate, administrative data from the police, the health sector and the judiciary, to monitor domestic violence, such as data on the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, age and, when applicable, disabilities of the victims, 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 those subjected to domestic violence;

Invites the United Nations system and, as appropriate, regional and subregional organizations, to provide technical assistance to States in their efforts to eliminate domestic violence, including, upon request, in the development and implementation of national action plans on the prevention and elimination of domestic violence, 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;

Decides to convene an intersessional panel discussion on the intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate domestic violence, before its sixty-first session, and requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize the panel discussion, inviting States, civil society organizations, including women’s rights organizations, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, representatives of academia and other relevant stakeholders to address the implementation of the obligations of States under relevant provisions of international human rights law and to discuss challenges and best practices in this regard, and to make the panel discussion fully accessible;

Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a comprehensive report, in an accessible and easy-to-read format, with specific recommendations on how to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors to prevent domestic violence, in consultation with States and all relevant stakeholders, including the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, other relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, regional organizations and human rights bodies and civil society, including women’s rights organizations, and to present the report to the Council at its sixty-second session;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner, when preparing the above-mentioned comprehensive report, to consider the outcome of the panel discussion.

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