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OHCHR advocated the adoption of laws for reparations of survivors of sexual violence and worked to strengthen capacities of national rule of law and justice actors in order to address impunity for conflict-related sexual violence. OHCHR’s Guidance Note on reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence was published in June 2014 during the UK Summit on Sexual Violence in Conflict. This guidance note provided policy and operational guidance for Member States, UN agencies, development actors, and civil society organizations regarding reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence. In 2015, OHCHR provided support to strengthen the capacity of human rights component in Mali to monitor and investigate conflict-related sexual violence. Inputs and comments were provided on legislation on sexual gender based violence in a variety of countries to ensure compliance with international norms (including in Zambia, Belarus Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Somali, and Papua New Guinea). As part of the Team of Experts on the Rule of Law on Sexual Violence in Conflict, OHCHR continued to provide technical advice and capacity-building assistance to national authorities in addressing accountability for conflict-related sexual violence (in Central African Republic, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Somalia and South Sudan).
In South Sudan, OHCHR provide support to the government to establish a high-level policy panel to improve women’s access to justice including the launching of mobile-courts to speed up legal proceedings, review of the criminal justice system.
OHCHR supported fact-finding missions and Commissions of Inquiry which, inter alia, look into violence against women including sexual violence in Mali, and Central African Republic. In October 2013, OHCHR, in collaboration with UN WOMEN, organised a meeting to review efforts to strengthen expertise of Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions in the area of sexual and gender-based violence.