A/HRC/17/23 challenges to preventing violence against women as drawn from an analysis of the information submitted. II. Good practices in efforts to prevent violence against women 3. In its resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993, the General Assembly recognized that “violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared to men.” This understanding was reiterated in numerous resolutions of the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, and was also articulated by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, including in its general recommendation No. 19 (1992) on violence against women. In the context of the present report, a large majority of respondents indeed reaffirmed that violence against women is a human rights violation which needs to be dealt with specifically within the larger context of combating discrimination against women. A. Legislative measures 4. Several respondents qualified their ratification of international and other regional treaties and conventions, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará), as a demonstration of their commitment to eliminating violence against women and genderbased discrimination. In addition, reference was made to the draft convention on preventing and combating violence against women of the Council of Europe, which was adopted in April 2011. Discussions on a European protection order to avoid re-victimization across borders were also noted. 5. Most stakeholders, however, focused on describing their domestic legislation, emphasizing the importance of a solid domestic framework to prevent violence against women, punish perpetrators, provide support, protection and remedies for victims, and avoid re-victimization. There seems to be no standard approach on legislative measures for violence against women, but two trends, often present in parallel, can be detected: adopting specific legislation on violence against women, or specific forms of violence against women, such as domestic violence or violence related to trafficking, and including specific provisions on violence against women in more general legislation, such as criminal codes, family laws, or non-discrimination or equality laws. 6 1. Specific legislation 6. Many respondents underlined the enacting of specific legislation on violence against women as a good prevention practice. Guatemala and Mexico, for example, have recently 6 4 A study based on a mapping of the relevant legislation and/or policies in all European Union member States was carried out recently to assess opportunities to standardize national legislation on gender violence. The study found no clear-cut answer as to the feasibility of standardization at the European Union level due to the diversity of the legal areas in which the range of proposed measures to tackle violence against women were embedded. The study concluded, however, that an overall policy at the European Union level is possible and timely.