A/HRC/44/52 and killings, and recommended that necessary measures be taken to ensure investigation, accountability and effective remedies for victims (CAT/C/AFG/CO/2, para. 43, and CAT/C/PAK/CO/1, paras. 22 and 23). The Committee also recommended that journalists be protected from reprisals for their work (CAT/C/AFG/CO/2, para. 44). 89. The special procedures of the Human Rights Council perform a key preventive function through the individual complaints procedure under which any individual, group, civil society actor or national human rights body can submit information on alleged violations of human rights to the special procedure mandate holders, including the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, whose mandate has issued many communications over the years on violence against journalists. 90. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women is mandated to seek and receive information on violence against women, its causes and consequences, from Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies, other Special Rapporteurs responsible for various human rights questions and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, including women’s organizations, and to respond effectively to such information. The Special Rapporteur receives and transmits two kinds of communications: one is an urgent appeal when reliable and credible information is received concerning cases which involve an imminent threat, or fear of threat, to the right to personal integrity or life of a woman. The other is an allegation letter, which is used to highlight violations that have already occurred and/or to general patterns of violations. They can also be used to raise concerns over a particular legal framework and its application as regards violence against women. The Special Rapporteur may send allegation letters requiring Governments to clarify the substance of cases of violence against women that she has received. 91. To date only a few journalists have availed themselves of the communication procedure to address alleged violations (A/HRC/39/23, para. 9). Special procedure mandate holders sent 15 communications to countries in 2017 in relation to the rights of journalists, 22 in 2018 and 10 between January and April 2019. Since 2010, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women has sent nine joint communications to States related to violence against women journalists and the Special Rapporteur encourages women journalists to use the complaints mechanism. VIII. Conclusions and recommendations 92. At present, the right of women journalists to be safe and free from genderbased violence is protected by a number of international human rights standards and by specific women’s rights instruments related to the prohibition of discrimination and gender-based violence against women. In practice, however, these instruments have yet to be fully applied by using the synergies between them. There is also a lack of knowledge and use of the complaints procedure available under the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and other mandates. A gender-sensitive approach at the international and national level is required to ensure the implementation of human rights instruments that are specifically aimed at discrimination against women and gender-based violence, such as the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and relevant regional instruments, for the creation of an enabling environment in which gender balance and the empowerment of women journalists can be fully respected and reflected in their work. In the case of women journalists, that entails, first of all, the obligation of States to include a gender perspective in all initiatives aimed at creating and maintaining a safe and favourable environment for free and independent journalism. 93. In that context, Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations to States: (a) Fully apply international human rights standards on the freedom of expression and the protection of journalists, as well as women’s rights instruments related to the prohibition of discrimination and gender-based violence against women, using the synergies between them to ensure the safety of women journalists working in 17