A/HRC/14/22 23. The obligation to provide reparations to women subjected to violence is much more clearly spelled out in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which places upon the State the duty to develop penal, civil, labour and administrative sanctions in domestic legislation to punish and redress the wrongs caused to women who are subjected to violence. The Declaration states that women who are subjected to violence should be provided with access to the mechanisms of justice and, as provided for by national legislation, to just and effective remedies for the harm that they have suffered, and that States should inform women of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms (art. 4 (d)). In the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women, it is envisaged that States must undertake to establish fair and effective legal procedures for women who have been subjected to violence and the necessary legal and administrative mechanisms to ensure that women subjected to violence have effective access to restitution, reparations or other just and effective remedies (art. 7 (f) and (g)). The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa expressly states that women who are subjected to violence through violations of their rights to life, integrity and security of person should have access to reparations including rehabilitation (art. 4) and obliges the State to create mechanisms to increase the participation of women in planning, formulation and implementation of post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation (art. 10). However, as pointed out by the previous Special Rapporteur, “very little information is available regarding State obligations to provide adequate reparations for acts of violence against women … this aspect of due diligence remains grossly underdeveloped”.7 24. The little attention devoted to reparations, both at a substantive and procedural level, for women who suffer violence contrasts with the fact that women are often the target of both sex-specific and other forms of violence, not only in times of conflict but also in ordinary times. Women often bear the brunt of the consequences of violence that targets them, their partners and dependants. Given the disparate and differentiated impact that violence has on women and on different groups of women, there is a need for specific measures of redress in order to meet their specific needs and priorities. Since violence perpetrated against individual women generally feeds into patterns of pre-existing and often cross-cutting structural subordination and systemic marginalization, measures of redress need to link individual reparation and structural transformation. Additionally, women who experience violence have traditionally encountered obstacles to accessing the institutions that award reparations. 25. There are signs that the traditional neglect of women in the reparations domain, best exemplified by the largely unsuccessful movement for reparations for the so-called “comfort women”, is ending. The international legal response to violence against women over the past 15 years and the explicit recognition of violence against women as a human rights concern within the United Nations serve as indicators. Furthermore, the inroads of feminism in international criminal law, crystallizing in the inclusion of some forms of gender violence as war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, were accompanied by relevant discussions about how other transitional justice mechanisms, and not just criminal courts, could be rendered more inclusive to women. 26. More recently, there has been increasing progress in State practice in making sure that the mandates of truth and reconciliation commissions include the investigation of 7 GE.10-13109 See E/CN.4/2006/61, para. 55. Previously, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women had already referred to the need for legal remedies for victims in the context of the permanent International Criminal Court, and to national mechanisms to provide redress for victims (E/CN.4/1998/54). 9