A/HRC/41/42 III. Twenty-five years of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences: an analysis of its evolution, the current challenges and the way forward – contribution to the 25-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action A. Reflection on the new and persisting challenges the global women’s rights movement faces and its impact on the work of the Special Rapporteur 16. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences was established on 4 March 1994 by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1994/45. The establishment of the mandate as the first independent human rights mechanism on the elimination of violence against women represented an important benchmark within the global women’s rights movement, as not only did it recognize violence against women as a human rights violation, but it also tasked the Special Rapporteur with ensuring that violence against women was integrated into the United Nations human rights framework and its mechanisms. 17. While the present report will reflect principally on the first 25 years of the mandate, it will also contribute to the 25-year review in 2020 of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and will consider the forthcoming 20-year review of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, as well as the 5-year review process of the Sustainable Development Goals, of which Goal 5, and in particular its target 5.2, focus on the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres. 18. The analysis of the evolution of the mandate is undertaken within the context of the international women’s human rights framework, with a view to providing recommendations on how the mandate, along with other relevant independent global and regional independent monitoring mechanisms on women’s rights, can be strengthened. It also outlines the shortcomings of the current system and considers the development of a system-wide approach to eliminating violence against women, including through the establishment of an institutional platform for cooperation between independent monitoring mechanisms aimed at accelerating implementation of the international and regional standards for the elimination of violence against women and girls. In that regard, the report addresses the current disconnect between on the one hand the various United Nations entities and the mandate, including the United Nations trust fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women, and on the other hand the work of relevant United Nations and regional mechanisms on violence against women, as well as the fragmented implementation of United Nations and regional agendas and instruments on women’s rights and violence against women, which poses a significant challenge to the establishment of a system-wide approach to address violence against women. 19. The analysis also considers the changes in the global context of women’s rights over the past 25 years, a shift that has brought with it many positive changes, but which has also revealed the persistent and systematic discrimination and violence against women that is deeply rooted in the fabric of our society and that has become normalized. It is within that context that the rise of popular movements, such as #MeToo and #NiUnaMenos, and their various manifestations across the world, have broken the silence on sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence, while calling for change. 20. At the same time, there is a mounting opposition to and backsliding of women’s rights everywhere, including an upsurge in retrogressive movements and a backlash against feminism, gender equality and women’s empowerment. Within that context, the term “gender” is also being misinterpreted as “gender ideology” and has led to an increase in gender-based violence against women. 5