A/HRC/38/46 reproductive health.1 The Working Group also issued press releases, individually or jointly with other mandate holders, treaty bodies and regional mechanisms. 2 D. Other activities 7. Since its previous report to the Human Rights Council, the experts have undertaken numerous activities in their capacity as members of the Working Group (see annex). II. Thematic analysis: reasserting equality, countering rollbacks A. Introduction 8. In the present report, the Working Group takes stock of the first six years of its mandate and analyses the lessons learned. It is grateful for the responses to the questionnaire it sent out in July 2017 to all Permanent Missions in Geneva and other stakeholders, seeking information on lessons learned, key challenges and opportunities relating to the work of the mandate. 1. Conceptual framework 9. The Working Group, in establishing its conceptual framework and working methods, stressed that the elimination of discrimination against women in law and in practice required a comprehensive and coherent human rights-based approach that ensured that women were at the centre of efforts to hold principally States accountable for implementing international standards guaranteeing civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights (see A/HRC/20/28). The Working Group addressed the elimination of discrimination against women in law and in practice in all fields from the perspective of States’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfil women’s human rights. 10. It emphasized that national, regional and international human rights mechanisms, as well as grass-roots activists, played critical roles in ensuring the full enjoyment by women of their human rights. For legal guarantees to benefit all women, implementation frameworks and strategies must be responsive to the intersections of gender-based discrimination with other grounds of discrimination. 3 11. Indeed, the work of the Working Group has covered all women, acknowledging that women are not a uniform group. Nearly 40 years of reporting to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women have proven that there are multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women around the world and within countries that reinforce and sustain each other. All women, in their diversity and many different circumstances, are affected differently by discriminatory laws and practices. Nevertheless, there are shared aspects of discrimination against women that persist in all cultures, although with differing levels of intensity and differing impacts. 12. Furthermore, throughout the first six years of the mandate, there has been a need to constantly reiterate, even within the human rights system, that women are not just another vulnerable group, as they are often treated by some. They are half of the world population and often the majority of each of the vulnerable groups, hence eliminating the persistent discrimination and backlashes against women’s rights should be addressed both as a standalone goal and as a mainstreaming issue. 13. The Working Group has observed how concepts such as “complementarity”, “equity” and “protection of the family” have been used to undermine women’s rights by challenging universal human rights to equality and non-discrimination. Such concepts are also employed to justify State and non-State violations of these rights, and non-compliance with State 1 2 3 4 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/Communications.aspx. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/NewsSearch.aspx?MID=WG_Women. See Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010) on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention, para. 18.