A/HRC/17/26 origin, nationality, disability and sexual orientation, but the conditions in which women live can also position them as being especially receptive to gender-based violence. 74. For example, the ability to obtain a high quality education is exponentially difficult for poor, rural and/or disabled people. Furthermore, the world’s women and girls continue to receive inadequate education when compared to the men and boys from their communities. Due to inadequate education, employment and financial security are more difficult for women and girls to attain. According to UNESCO, “of the “796 million adults worldwide (15 years and older) who reported not being able to read and write in 2008… two-thirds of them (64%) were women.”20 Being illiterate isolates women, exacerbates poverty, and creates a context ripe for violence. 75. Research reveals that living in poverty can further increase the likelihood that women will experience violence, as poverty is both a cause and a consequence of violence against women. Also, poverty and race are interconnected – as the majority of the world’s poor are women who come from racial and ethnic minority communities. The options for escaping gender-based violence are considerably reduced when women do not have access to resources. 76. Access to quality health care is a particularly daunting challenge for the world’s women, especially considering how race, ethnicity, citizenship status, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and disability can play determining roles in the kinds of health care women can access and receive. 77. Pregnancy and childbearing are part of the material reality of women and girls which requires a gendered analysis. This entails explicitly accounting for the fact that maternal mortality and morbidity are manifestations of rights violations for which there are no parallel violations directly experienced by men. The general risk of maternal mortality and morbidity faced by all women is significantly altered by factors such as quality, affordable and accessible maternal health care. The absence of this type of health care contributes to deaths that are preventable and that occur at disproportionately higher rates for pregnant women and adolescent girls who live in the poorest regions of the world. 78. Contexts such as conflict, natural disasters, occupation, internal displacement and institutionalization help to create and to maintain an inter- and intra-gender hierarchy, in which women’s capacity to act is constrained by forces that increase their vulnerability to violence. D. Some critical aspects to consider when adopting a holistic approach 79. In pursuing a holistic approach to understanding discrimination and violence against women, it is imperative to include an analysis of the right to an adequate standard of living and also a focus on, inter alia, bodily integrity rights, education, civil and political engagement and individual self-determination. These fundamentals directly affect a woman’s ability to equitably and holistically participate in public and private spaces. 80. A holistic approach requires that attention be paid to the particular in order to fully realize the universal. This means grappling with the fact that the rhetoric of universality is not borne out by the material reality in which women live. It looks to disciplines and institutions beyond the law to make the law more responsive to the actual needs of women whose non-discrimination, equality and gender-based violence-related rights are violated. 20 Available from http://www.uis.unesco.org/template/pdf/Literacy/Fact_Sheet_2010_Lit_EN.pdf 17