A/HRC/23/44 for their rights within Sudan and fully investigate and prosecute any violations thereof. The very difficult conditions in some departure points, including with regard to water and sanitation, shelter, health care and other basic services, also require particular attention and monitoring. 19. In South Kordofan and Blue Nile, the Special Rapporteur notes the efforts by the Government of Sudan to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance in Governmentcontrolled areas. He further urges all parties to provide safe access to humanitarian assistance in all areas, in implementation of the memoranda of understanding (August 2012), and to redouble efforts, with support of the international community, to peacefully address all outstanding issues that are fuelling this crisis. He observes that Sudan continues to experience a variety of causes and contexts of internal displacement. These include both new and protracted displacement; displacement due to armed conflict and communal violence; and displacement due to conflicts over resources because of climate change and natural disasters. He therefore urges the Government to embrace a comprehensive framework for the protection of the human rights of IDPs by ratifying the Kampala Convention and adopt implementing legislation at the earliest opportunity. III. Internally displaced women: progress, challenges and the way ahead A. Introduction and overview 20. Since the 1990s, States, international agencies, CSOs and other relevant actors have paid greater attention to the rights and needs of women and girls in emergency and post-conflict situations, and promoting gender-sensitive approaches to humanitarian and development assistance1 and early recovery. This has been borne out in a wide range of resolutions, policies, guidelines and handbooks, as well as gender-mainstreaming efforts and numerous targeted programmes. This overall framework, predominantly focused on women, peace and security, turned greater attention to refugees, with initiatives in recent years increasingly including IDW. 21. Despite these developments, in many cases responses to internal displacement still do not adequately address the concerns of women,2 who account for some 50 per cent of IDPs.3 As IDPs, women experience the various human rights challenges characteristic of displacement situations generally, and which often place IDPs at greater risk than most other affected populations. These frequently include: loss of livelihoods and key documentation, and lack of effective access to a number of important rights and services. Existing patterns of discrimination prevalent in many of these contexts are exacerbated during conflict and contribute to violations of women’s rights to housing, land and property. IDW also often experience human rights challenges due to interlinked forms of discrimination based on gender, and intersection of gender with other factors such as age, group affiliation (e.g. membership in minority groups), disability, civil status, socioeconomic status and displacement itself. Particular groups or categories of IDW can therefore be especially at risk, while the particular risks encountered by IDW vary depending on the displacement context (e.g. emergency situations, protracted displacement 1 2 3 Review and Appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Outcome Document of the Twenty-Third Special Session of the General Assembly. Susan Martin, “Refugee and displaced women: 60 years of progress and setbacks”, Amsterdam Law Forum, vol. 3, No. 2 (2011). UNHCR, Global Trends 2010: 60 years and still counting (2011), p. 33. 7