A/HRC/31/57 fail to exercise due diligence obligations, with the “characteristic trait of the offence [being] found in the nature of the act committed rather than in the status of the person who committed it”.30 The Special Rapporteur welcomes these developments and finds that the international humanitarian and criminal law frameworks complement the application of international human rights law, particularly with regard to conflict situations, wherein the control typically exercised by States in peacetime is either lacking or has been replaced by other elements of control, such as insurgent groups or militias. 53. States’ due diligence obligations to ensure redress remain intact when non-State actors perpetrate conflict-related sexual violence. Gender-sensitive practices must be employed when investigating violations during and after the armed conflict. Silence or lack of resistance cannot be used to imply consent, which furthermore cannot be inferred from the words or conduct of a victim who was subjected to force, threats, or a coercive environment (A/HRC/7/3). Comprehensive assistance and reparations programmes in these contexts often require years to be fully implemented. F. Domestic violence 54. It is estimated that 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual intimate-partner or non-partner violence,31 with significantly higher figures reported in some States. Women and girls can be victims of specific forms of violence at the hands of their families, for instance in the form of widowhood rites or dowry-related violence, such as bride burnings or acid attacks (A/HRC/20/16). Victims of domestic violence tend to be intimidated by continual threats of physical, sexual or other violence and verbal abuse and may be “effectively manipulated by intermittent kindness” (see E/CN.4/1996/53, para. 47). Fear of further assaults can be sufficiently severe as to cause suffering and anxiety amounting to inhuman treatment.32 55. Domestic violence can cause severe physical or mental pain and suffering, constitutes gender discrimination, and is sometimes perpetrated with the purpose of eliciting information, punishment or intimidation (E/CN.4/1996/53). Domestic violence amounts to ill-treatment or torture whenever States acquiesce in the prohibited conduct by failing to protect victims and prohibited acts, of which they knew or should have known, in the private sphere (A/HRC/13/39/Add.5). States are internationally responsible for torture when they fail — by indifference, inaction or prosecutorial or judicial passivity — to exercise due diligence to protect against such violence or when they legitimize domestic violence by, for instance, allowing husbands to “chastize” their wives or failing to criminalize marital rape, acts that could constitute torture. 56. Societal indifference to or even support for the subordinate status of women, together with the existence of discriminatory laws and patterns of State failure to punish perpetrators and protect victims, create conditions under which women may be subjected to systematic physical and mental suffering, despite their apparent freedom to resist. In this context, State acquiescence in domestic violence can take many forms, some of which may be subtly disguised (A/HRC/7/3). States’ condoning of and tolerant attitude towards 30 31 32 See International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia, case No. IT-96-23-T and IT-96-23/1-T, Prosecutor v. Kunarac et al., judgement of 22 February 2001, para. 495; International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, case No. ICTR-97-20-T, Prosecutor v. Semanza, judgement of 15 May 2003. United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), “Facts and figures: ending violence against women”. European Court of Human Rights, application No. 3564/11, Eremia v. the Republic of Moldova, judgement of 28 May. 15