A/HRC/4/104 page 3 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to Council decision 2/102. Section II of this report contains a summary of human rights treaty body activities aiming to promote gender equality and women’s human rights. The information is extracted from the concluding observations on States parties’ reports over the last two years, along with general comments issued in that time period, and other activities to which the committees contributed. Section III traces how various special procedures have addressed gender and women’s rights issues in their respective mandates. Section IV provides information on the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on gender and women’s human rights. The last section of this report, section V, contains brief conclusions and recommendations. II. MONITORING IMPLEMENTATION OF EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS PROVISIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES A. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 2. The Human Rights Committee has included one or more recommendations pertaining to gender equality and women’s human rights in almost all of its concluding observations adopted during its eighty-second (2004) to eighty-eighth sessions (2006). 3. Under article 6 of the Covenant, the Committee expressed concern that overly restrictive abortion laws can lead women to seek illegal and unsafe abortions, thus endangering their lives and health. The Committee has noted cases where even when the law permits abortions, they are unavailable in practice.1 It has also dealt with issues relating to contraception, family planning services and sexual education in school curricula2 and commented more generally on high infant and maternal mortality rates. 4. Regretting the prevalence of domestic violence in a number of States parties, the Committee has adopted several recommendations under articles 3 and 7 of the Covenant. These pertain, inter alia, to the adoption and implementation of policies and laws to prevent and combat domestic violence; inclusion of specific provisions on domestic violence, including marital rape, in penal legislation; programmes to assist victims and raise public awareness; proper training of law enforcement officers; availability of restraining orders as required; and criminal prosecution 1 Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixtieth Session, Supplement No. 60 (A/60/40), vol. I, Albania, para. 82 (14); Morocco, para. 84 (29); Poland, para. 85 (8); Kenya, para. 86 (14); Mauritius, para. 88 (9). Ibid., Sixty-first Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/61/40), vol. I, Paraguay, para. 77 (10). 2 A/60/40, vol. I, Poland, para. 85 (9).