Taking Action Against Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls

E/RES/2015/21View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Economic and Social Council, under agenda item 19c Crime prevention and criminal justice, published in 2015.

What other versions does this mandate have?

2 versions · 2013–2015

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2015	E/RES/2015/21	Taking action against gender-related killing of women and girls	1,732	20%Compare
2013	E/RES/2013/36	Taking action against gender-related killing of women and girls	1,825	–

What subjects does this mandate have?

14 subjects

Capacity Building Crime Prevention Crime Victims Criminal Justice Criminal Statistics Data Collection Gender-Based Violence Girls Homicide Impunity International Instruments Legal Remedies Rape Women

What’s in this document?

20 operative paragraphs

Recommends to the General Assembly the adoption of the following draft resolution:

Urges Member States to take measures to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish acts of violence against women and girls, in particular gender-related killing, in accordance with national laws, and to act at all levels to end impunity for those responsible for committing these heinous crimes against women and girls;

Also urges Member States to strengthen their criminal justice response to gender-related killing of women and girls, in particular by taking measures to support their capacity to investigate, prosecute and punish all forms of such crime, and to consider measures in their capacities to provide, as appropriate, reparation, compensation and/or necessary legal, medical, psychological and social support to victims and their families or dependents;

Encourages Member States to consider ways to enhance international cooperation and the exchange of good practices in criminal matters related to gender-based violence, including by, as appropriate, ratifying or acceding to and implementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols thereto¹² and other relevant international legal instruments;

¹²United Nations, Treaty Series, vols. 2225, 2237, 2241 and 2326, No. 39574.

Encourages States parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women¹³ and the Optional Protocol thereto,¹⁴ the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols thereto¹⁵ and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court¹⁶ to effectively implement those instruments;

¹³Ibid., vol. 1249, No. 20378.

¹⁴Ibid., vol. 2131, No. 20378.

¹⁵Ibid., vols. 1577, 2171 and 2173, No. 27531; and General Assembly resolution 66/138, annex.

¹⁶United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2187, No. 38544.

Invites Member States to take into consideration the existing practical tools, as recommended by the open-ended intergovernmental expert group on gender-related killing of women and girls at its meeting held in Bangkok from 11 to 13 November 2014, namely the Latin American model protocol for the investigation of gender-related killing of women and the recommendations for the effective investigation of the crime of femicide;¹⁷

¹⁷See E/CN.15/2015/16, para. 8.

Encourages Member States to promote integrated and comprehensive strategies to prevent all forms of violence against women and girls, including gender-related killing of women and girls, that include early and continuous educational programmes, community mobilization and awareness-raising, in order to counter attitudes and social factors that foster, justify or tolerate any violence against women and girls;

Urges Member States to adopt integrated and comprehensive responses to violence against women in order to reduce risks of gender-related killing through early intervention and risk assessment, exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish gender-related killing of women and girls, ensure equal protection of women under the law and equal access to justice, consider adopting an integrated, multidisciplinary and gender-sensitive approach to the prevention, investigation, prosecution and punishment of gender-related killing of women and girls to minimize the risk of secondary victimization in the criminal justice system and develop appropriate mechanisms and enhance capacities for forensic investigations to identify human remains and missing persons;

Encourages Member States to criminalize, prosecute and punish rape and other forms of sexual and gender-related violence against women and girls committed in all situations, including situations of conflict, taking into account international standards, and urges, where appropriate, relevant stakeholders to support the development and strengthening of the capacities of national institutions, in particular law enforcement, judicial and health systems, and of local civil society networks to provide sustainable assistance and access to justice to women and girls affected by gender-related violence;

Also encourages Member States to ensure that appropriate punishment for perpetrators of gender-related killing of women and girls are in place and are proportionate to the gravity of the offence;

Calls upon Member States to protect and support victims, drawing on the important role of civil society and ensuring effective cooperation between all relevant State agencies, including, where appropriate, the judiciary, prosecution services, law enforcement agencies, health and social services and local and regional authorities;

Urges Member States to ensure that victims and victims’ survivors are informed of their rights and can participate, as appropriate, in the criminal proceedings, taking into account their dignity, well-being and safety, and that victims are supported through appropriate services;

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

Encourages Member States to collect, disaggregate, analyse and report data on gender-related killing of women and girls, according to the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes endorsed by the Statistical Commission and, where appropriate, to the extent possible, involve civil society, academia, victims’ representatives and relevant international organizations and provide appropriate training to relevant personnel on technical and ethical aspects of such data collection and analysis;

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 to conduct and coordinate relevant research on gender-related killing of women and girls, particularly in connection with the standardization of the collection, disaggregation, analysis and reporting of data;

Also requests the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to prepare, in collaboration with Member States, an analytical study on gender-related killing of women and girls at the global level, containing disaggregated data, including from relevant stakeholders, on this phenomenon to illustrate its different forms and patterns;

Invites the institutes of the United Nations crime prevention and criminal justice programme network to include in their work programmes the issue of gender-related killing of women and girls with a view to promoting ways and means of more effectively preventing, investigating, prosecuting and punishing such crime, and to develop appropriate training material;

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 seventy-second session on the implementation of the present resolution.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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