A/HRC/15/40 housing, those mechanisms that have undertaken a detailed study of the gender dimensions of their mandate have not followed up in a sustained and focused manner on issues of gender. This is in part due to the fact that gender may be only one dimension of a mandate, albeit important one. The effect of calling on special procedures to incorporate gender perspectives in their work may have been that they have further highlighted the extent of discriminatory laws and practices and their impact on the enjoyment of human rights, but also shown that the existing mandates have been able to respond to them only partially. B. Human rights treaty bodies 37. The United Nations human rights treaty bodies have significantly increased the degree of attention paid to the position of women and the gender dimensions of human rights, with varying degrees of engagement, reflecting the scope of the treaty in question, the priority assigned by committee members to these issues, and the information received by the committees from various sources. Attention to these issues can be seen particularly in the concluding observations of the committees on the reports of States parties, in general comments, cases decided under individual communications procedures, and reports under inquiry procedures. 38. The 2006 report by the Secretary-General to the Commission on the Status of Women surveyed the extent to which laws and practices that discriminate against women are addressed by human rights treaty bodies.36 The 2006 assessment is still accurate. The survey emphasized that the treaty body which has devoted the most sustained attention to the issue of laws and practices that discriminate against women has been the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The Committee has clarified the obligation of States parties to ensure there is no discrimination in their laws, and frequently addressed issues pertaining to gender-neutral provisions which may perpetuate discrimination against women, discriminatory practices and legislative provisions in family and/or personal status codes, labour legislation, criminal law and customary law, as well as in regard to nationality and citizenship, and property and inheritance rights.37 39. In addition to its recommendations to individual reporting States, in its general recommendations the Committee has analysed the role of law in perpetuating or eliminating discrimination and the obligations of the State, in particular in regard to violence against women, equality in marriage and family relations, and temporary special measures which analyse the scope of State obligations under the Convention.38 40. The Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the Rights of the Child consistently raise issues regarding the position of women and girls and their enjoyment of the rights guaranteed under the respective treaties. These include questions and recommendations relating to the limitations of existing laws and the desirability of new or improved laws to eliminate discrimination and promote equality.39 41. For example, during its ninety-sixth to ninety-eighth sessions, recommendations by the Human Rights Committee to States parties in concluding observations included recommendations regarding protection against indirect discrimination in anti-discrimination 36 37 38 39 E/CN.6/2006/8, paras. 13-22. Ibid., paras. 16 and 17. General recommendations No. 19 (1992) on violence against women, No. 21 (1994) on equality in marriage and family relations, and No. 25 (2004) on article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention (temporary special measures). See E/CN.6/2006/8, paras. 18-20. 11