A/HRC/19/53 6. During that period, regional civil society consultations were held with support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental organizations.2 Those regional consultations highlighted key issues related to women‘s right to adequate housing, most of which remain relevant today, including women‘s right to adequate housing and access to land in the context of HIV/AIDS; violence against women and its relationship to housing; the impact of forced evictions on women; gender discrimination in law, custom and practice related to housing (including discriminatory practices with respect to property and inheritance); as well as intersectional discrimination.3 7. Those consultations brought to light the specific difficulties that women, in every region, have to face in accessing housing and land. And, to make matters worse, far from being a place of safety and security, the home is too often permeated by violence. Women, those consultations highlighted, were likely to experience physical and sexual assault within the context of forced evictions. They also face insecurity and abuse within their own communities, including domestic violence. While the home should be a place of security, dignity, peace, and equality, for millions of women around the world the right to adequate housing has gone unfulfilled and unrealized. A. Results of the 2011 consultation of the Special Rapporteur on women and the right to adequate housing 8. In 2011, the current Special Rapporteur decided once again to address the question of women and the right to adequate housing, in order to gauge what progress has been made in the advancement of this right for women globally since these first consultations were held. 9. A worldwide online consultation on women and the right to adequate housing was launched,4 supplemented by direct outreach to women‘s rights organizations and advocates across regions.5 The e-consultation served as a new opportunity to identify and make visible the multiple issues which women are currently facing in relation to housing. 10. The e-consultation harnessed the participation of approximately 300 organizations, networks, social movements, grassroots groups, advocates, academics, affected women, experts and others from across the world. While many of the issues documented by the earlier reports of the mandate remain relevant today, it is also clear that new challenges have emerged which threaten to turn back the clock for women and their right to adequate housing. At the same time, it is also clear that some notable advances, mainly in the field of new national legislation on women and housing, have occurred in different regions. 2 3 4 5 4 The reports of these consultations are available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Housing/Pages/WomenAndHousing.aspx E/CN.4/2006/118. See: http://righttohousingdebates.org/ The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the following for their assistance in this work: Mariana Pires, Rodrigo Faria, and Joyce Reis (Brazil team); Mayra Gómez (project coordinator), Shivani Chaudhry (focal point for Asia), Mobola Fajemirokun (focal point for Africa), Leilani Farha with assistance from Narmeen Hashim (focal point for North America), Vanesa Valiño and Mariko Patti (focal points for Western Europe), Anelise Melendez Lundgren and Ana Falu with assistance from Kristen McNeill (focal points for Latin America), Salwa Duaibis (focal point for the Middle East and North Africa) and Tatjana Peric (focal point for Eastern Europe and Central Asia). The Special Rapporteur also wishes to thank all those who participated in the global e-consultation for their important contributions.