Following a June 5 meeting sponsored by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), the World Young Women’s Christian Association (World YWCA), and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), the event’s organizers issued a joint statement calling on the United Nations to strengthen their support for the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (SRVAW) and to more actively collaborate in the implementation and monitoring of the recommendations of the SRVAW. The event, entitled “15 years of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women: gains, challenges and the way forward,” was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland to complement the 11^th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council taking place the same week. Keynote speakers included Ms. Yakin Ertürk, the current Special Rapporteur, and Ms. Madeleine Rees, the head of the Women’s Rights and Gender Unit of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences was created in 1994 by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in order to integrate the elimination of violence against women into the United Nations’ mechanisms already established for more general human rights work. The need for placing someone in this role had been voiced the year before at the 1993 Vienna Conference, which officially recognized violence against women as a human rights violation and that women’s rights were “an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights.” From: “Vienna Declaration and Program of Action,” United Nations General Assembly (12 July 1993).  Since then, the SRVAW has worked extensively in the areas of domestic violence and human sex trafficking, as well as reproductive rights, women’s health, and violence against women during armed conflicts.

The joint statement, issued by the APWLD, World WYCA, and the OMCT and endorsed by dozens of smaller non-profit organizations, commended the office of the SRVAW for the work that it has done in the past fifteen years, but it also stressed the many areas where improvement is needed. In particular, organizations and governments were reminded to focus on root causes of discrimination rather than just attempting to prevent the physical manifestations of violence against women. The statement made the following four recommendations to the United Nations Human Rights Council in order to improve the effectiveness of the SRVAW:

1. Strengthen the UNSRVAW mandate by facilitating an organic collaboration with different UN mechanisms, in particular other Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies, the Universal Periodic Review and, when relevant, the UN Security Council;
2. Strengthen its support to the UNSRVAW’s collaboration with women’s human rights groups that has always been a venue for women to dialogue and bring their issues to the attention of the mandate holder;
3. Ensure consistent and effective follow-up measures for the implementation of the recommendations of the UN Special Procedures; and
4. Hold a special session on how to effectively implement the right of women to be free from violence and ensure full accountability of both state and non-state actors - including transnational actors - with regard to violence against women, with the full participation of women’s human rights groups.

From: “Joint Oral Statement,” Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, World YWCA and World Organisation Against Torture (5 Jun 2009).

To access the full statement, please click here. (PDF, 4 pages).

Compiled from: “Mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Must Be Strengthened, Say Women’s Rights Activists and Experts During the 11^th Session of the UN Human Rights Council,” Women's UN Report Program & Network (15 June 2009); “Joint Oral Statement,” Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, World YWCA and World Organisation Against Torture (5 Jun 2009); “15 Years of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences,” United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (2009); “Vienna Declaration and Program of Action,” United Nations General Assembly (12 July 1993).

For More Information

Please see the International Law and Women’s Human Rights section of this website, including the page UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, and the What’s New article “Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Reviews 15 Years of Work” (23 Mar 2009).