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OHCHR has the responsibility to provide support and advice to country and thematic special rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, including the Special Rapporteur on violence against women. In addition to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, over the past year the following special procedures have addressed issues related to violence against women in their reports, including from field missions, to human rights bodies:- The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons (trafficking for the purposes of forced labour, particularly in factories and domestic work; forced marriage; and/or for purposes of sexual exploitation including in conditions of slavery and debt bondage);- The Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child pornography and child prostitution (violence against girls pertaining to abduction and rape practices; sale of girls forced to marry; domestic labour or sexual exploitation of girls; and domestic violence);- The Special Rapporteur on the right to education focused his annual report of 2006 on the girl child’s education (the socio-cultural context of gender discrimination under a patriarchal society, underpinning discriminatory behaviour, and domestic work by children as a major cause of exploitation and violence);- The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing has received an explicit mandate by the Commission on Human Rights to specifically study the issue of women, adequate housing and land. From 2002 to 2006 regional consultations were held with grass root women in Eastern Africa; Asia; Latin America and Caribbean; Central-Asia/Eastern Europe; and Euro-Mediterranean. Based on the regional consultations, the Special Rapporteur has regularly drawn the attention to linkages of lack of adequate housing with violence against women (domestic violence; impact on forced evictions accompanied by violence; and vulnerability of homeless women to violence);- The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (so-called “honor killings”; executions of women accused of adultery; and allegations of a pattern of killings affecting women or femicidio);- The Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons (sexual and gender-based violence against internally displaced women and girl-children); Hide

OHCHR extends legal assistance to victims of violence and members of their families. In Côte d’Ivoire, OHCHR has initiated a series of high visibility activities on the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights of women as a tool to empower them in their efforts against gender-based violence. Hide

In February 2007, OHCHR formally joined the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict. Hide

OHCHR commissions and conducts research and analysis on access to justice for victims of sexual violence, clarifies and draws attention to this issue, and develops materials to assist the development of policy and advocacy strategies. One of the mechanisms for so doing is through the development of legal analyses, guidelines and principles based on human rights, which address issues of critical importance for women. These will be developed in response to regional priorities but the aim is to ensure global resonance, with a focus on the current jurisprudence relating to the prosecution of rape, both under international humanitarian law and human rights law, and on the inter-linkages between access to justice and the protection of women’s economic, social and cultural rights, with the aim to influence legal standard-setting and subsequently policy development. In addition OHCHR conducts research and analysis of all forms of violence against women and girls. Hide

OHCHR field presences address violence against women at the national or regional levels, through technical assistance in law reform and monitoring of Government’s and other stakeholders’ compliance with their international commitments. Hide