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

A/RES/75/161View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 28Advancement of women, published in 2020.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

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

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2022.

2022A/77/302Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

47 operative paragraphs

Strongly condemns all forms of violence against all women and girls, recognizing that they are an impediment to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and to the full realization of their human rights;

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;

Urges States to strongly condemn all forms of violence against all women and girls, 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 all forms of violence against women, as set out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women;

Calls upon States 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 as well as achieve their full enjoyment of human rights without discrimination;

Also calls upon States to ensure that all human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled while combating the pandemic and that their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are in full compliance with their human rights obligations and commitments;

Urges States to take effective action to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and to address structural and underlying causes and risk factors, including by:

Designing and implementing appropriate domestic policies that are aimed at transforming discriminatory social attitudes and social and cultural patterns of conduct that condone violence against women and girls with a view to preventing and eliminating, in all public and private spheres, discrimination, gender stereotypes, negative social norms, attitudes and behaviours, and unequal power relations by which women and girls are regarded as subordinate to men and boys and that underlie and perpetuate male domination;

Designing or strengthening and implementing measures that remove remaining barriers to access to justice and enable all women and girls to have equal access to justice systems, adapted and appropriate to their needs and access to effective, timely, appropriate and victim-centred remedies;

Ensuring that services and programmes designed to protect women and girls from violence are accessible to women and girls with disabilities, in particular those living in institutionalized settings, who are the most vulnerable to violence, including by ensuring that facilities are accessible and mainstreaming disability in materials and training courses addressed to professionals working on violence against women;

Designing and implementing legislation and policies to prevent and respond to gender-related killing of women and girls, including femicide, and to end impunity for such cases;

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;

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;

Implementing, in partnership with all relevant stakeholders, effective violence prevention and response activities in schools and communities, educating children from a young age regarding the importance of treating all people with dignity and respect, and designing educational programmes and teaching materials that support gender equality, respectful relationships and non-violent behaviour;

Engaging men and boys in challenging gender stereotypes and negative social norms, attitudes and behaviours that underlie and perpetuate such violence and in developing and implementing measures that reinforce non-violent actions, attitudes and values, and encouraging men and boys, as agents and beneficiaries of change in the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, to take an active part and become their strategic partners and allies in efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls;

Developing policies and programmes with the support, where appropriate, of international organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations, giving priority to formal, informal and non-formal education programmes, including scientifically accurate and age-appropriate comprehensive education that is relevant to cultural contexts, that provides adolescent girls and boys and young women and men in and out of school, consistent with their evolving capacities, and with appropriate direction and guidance from parents and legal guardians, with the best interests of the child as their basic concern, information on sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention, 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 foster informed decision-making, communication and risk-reduction skills and to develop respectful relationships, in full partnership with young persons, parents, legal guardians, caregivers, educators and health-care providers, in order to, inter alia, enable them to protect themselves from HIV infection and other risks;

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 and implementing further measures to ensure that all officials, including those in leadership positions, responsible for implementing policies and programmes aimed at preventing violence against women and girls, protecting and assisting victims and investigating and punishing acts of violence receive training on gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment to raise their awareness of gender-specific needs, as well as of the underlying causes and the short- and long-term impact of violence against women and girls, and training on gender-responsive investigation of crimes of violence against women and girls;

Removing barriers, including political, legal, cultural, social, economic, institutional and religious ones, preventing women’s full, equal and effective participation in leadership and political and other decision-making positions, taking into account that promoting women to leadership positions may significantly reduce the risk of violence against them;

Taking effective, evidence-based measures to address institutional and structural barriers, and negative gender stereotyping, as well as multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls, in addition to conducting awareness-raising and capacity-building, in collaboration with civil society and women’s organizations and relevant United Nations entities;

Taking measures to improve the safety of girls at and on the way to and from school, including by creating a safe and violence-free environment by improving infrastructure, such as transportation, providing hygienic, separate and adequate sanitation facilities, improved lighting, playgrounds and safe environments and adopting policies to prevent, address and prohibit all forms of violence against women and girls, including gender-based violence and sexual harassment, through all appropriate measures;

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

Providing relevant, comprehensive and victim-centred legal protection to support and assist victims of violence, including sexual harassment, in a gender-sensitive manner, including victim and witness protection from reprisals for bringing complaints or giving evidence, within the framework of their national legal systems, including, as appropriate, legislative or other measures throughout the criminal and civil justice system, as appropriate, paying particular attention to women and girls facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination;

Establishing comprehensive, coordinated, interdisciplinary, accessible and sustained multisectoral services, programmes and responses for all victims and survivors of all forms of violence, including sexual harassment, that are adequately resourced, that are, when possible, in a language that they understand and in which they can communicate and that 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 services, shelters, medical and psychological assistance, counselling services and protection, and, in cases of girl victims, ensuring that such services, programmes and responses take into account the best interests of the child;

Establishing and/or strengthening law enforcement, health and social workers’ and counsellors’ response protocols and procedures to ensure that all appropriate actions are coordinated and taken to protect and respond to the needs of victims of violence, to identify acts of violence and to prevent their recurrence or further acts of violence and physical and psychological harm, ensuring that services are responsive to survivors’ needs, including by providing access to female health-care providers, police officers and counsellors if requested, and ensuring and maintaining the privacy of victims and the confidentiality of their reporting;

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;

Encourages States, in efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls, to work in partnership with the private sector and civil society, including women’s and community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, feminist groups, women human rights defenders, girls’ and youth-led organizations and trade, labour and other professional unions, as well as other relevant stakeholders;

Looks forward to the Generation Equality Forum, to be convened by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and co-chaired by France and Mexico, in partnership with civil society;

Takes note of the adoption by the International Labour Organization of the Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190);

Notes that efforts by civil society organizations in eliminating violence against women and girls, including by assisting victims and survivors of violence to have access to justice, are complementary to those of Governments, and in this regard urges States to support, where possible, non-State-led initiatives aimed at promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

Calls upon Member States to integrate prevention, mitigation and response efforts and reinforce plans and structures to counter the increase of sexual and gender-based violence, including domestic violence and violence in digital contexts, and harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage as part of their COVID-19 responses, including by maintaining and designating protection shelters, hotlines and help desks, and health and support services, as well as legal protection and support as essential services for all women and girls;

Also calls upon Member States to adopt measures to recognize, reduce and redistribute women’s and girls’ disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work and the feminization of poverty, which is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, including through poverty eradication measures, labour policies, public services and gender-responsive social protection programmes;

Urges States to ensure 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, the Beijing Platform for Action 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;

Calls upon States to prevent, address and prohibit violence, including sexual harassment, against women and girls in public and political life, including women in leadership positions, journalists and other media workers and human rights defenders, including through practical steps to prevent threats, harassment and violence, and to combat impunity by ensuring that those responsible for violations and abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence and threats, including in digital contexts, are promptly brought to justice and held accountable through impartial investigations;

Urges States to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women, taking into account their diverse situations and conditions and, as appropriate, girls, in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, programmes and other initiatives in the justice sector and aimed at preventing and responding to violence against women and girls;

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, the judiciary and other relevant sectors, to consider developing methodologies to collect data on all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment, in, inter alia, digital contexts, in order to monitor all forms of such 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 the 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 international efforts to eliminate 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 the need to take the measures necessary to ensure that no individual working within the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds, programmes and entities, should be involved in sexual harassment, too often perpetrated against those affected by humanitarian crises, and recognizes the efforts of the United Nations system in this regard;

Underscores the critical importance of protecting all persons affected by humanitarian crises, in particular women and children, from any form of sexual exploitation and abuse, including those perpetrated by humanitarian personnel, welcomes the determination of the Secretary-General to fully implement the United Nations policy of zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, stresses that victims and survivors should be at the core of such efforts, notes the six core principles relating to sexual exploitation and abuse adopted by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, and encourages Member States to make greater efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse and to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable;

Stresses that, within the United Nations system, adequate resources should be assigned to 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 sexual harassment, calls upon the United Nations system to make the necessary support and resources available, and takes note with appreciation in this regard of the contribution of the Spotlight initiative;

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;

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 sexual harassment;

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

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh 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 73/148 and the present resolution, including on their assistance to States in their efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, including in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic;

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-fifth and sixty-sixth sessions, including information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies on recent follow-up activities to implement resolutions 71/170 and 73/148 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-seventh session under the item entitled “Advancement of women”.

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