A/HRC/39/26 meaning that they have lived their entire lives in contexts of heightened risk. For them, a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services and information has particularly grave consequences, including unintended pregnancy, early and forced marriage, sexually transmitted infections and the risk of gender-based violence. 30. Humanitarian crises exacerbate pre-existing forms of gender-based discrimination and violence, and create additional barriers to gaining access to services. In the face of extreme adversity and insecurity, women and girls face particular risks of further violence, including trafficking, sexual slavery, rape, forced pregnancy, harmful practices such as child and forced marriage, and intimate partner violence. 17 Cases have also been documented of pregnant women and girls being specifically targeted, attacked, raped and beaten, including while in detention. 18 In addition, due to the scarcity of resources and opportunities, some women and girls resort to survival strategies such as transactional sex. All of the above, as well as a context of limited access to services, further increase potential exposure to sexually transmitted infections, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and maternal mortality and morbidity. 19 Where such human rights violations occur, by State and/or non-State actors, stigma and marginalization of survivors is commonplace, yet access for women and girls to accountability mechanisms or effective remedies remains uncommon. 2. Human rights obligations 31. International human rights and humanitarian law are complementary and mutually reinforcing bodies of law, sharing common objectives in that they seek to protect human life and dignity and prohibit discrimination. Human rights standards related to sexual and reproductive health and rights thus continue to apply in armed conflicts and other humanitarian settings.20 Under strict conditions, States may derogate from specific civil and political rights in case of a “public emergency”.21 No similar clause exists for economic, social and cultural rights, and treaty bodies have clarified that in emergencies those rights continue to apply with the minimum core obligations remaining non-derogable.22 32. The human rights standards related to the right to sexual and reproductive health have recently been articulated by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its general comment No. 22 (2016) on the right to sexual and reproductive health. The State obligation to ensure minimum essential levels of that right includes obligations to repeal or eliminate laws, policies and practices that criminalize, obstruct or undermine access to sexual and reproductive health; to take measures to prevent unsafe abortions and to provide post-abortion care and counselling; to ensure all individuals and groups have access to comprehensive education and information on sexual and reproductive health; to provide medicines, equipment and technologies essential to sexual and reproductive health; and to ensure access to effective and transparent remedies and redress, including administrative and judicial ones, for violations of the right to sexual and reproductive health. The Committee also recognizes the interdependence of that right with multiple 17 18 19 20 21 22 8 Ibid., pp. 40, 47–55; and Security Council resolution 1820 (2008). OHCHR, “Interviews with Rohingya’s fleeing from Myanmar since 9 October 2016”, Flash Report (2017), available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/FlashReport3Feb2017.pdf. Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Guidelines for Integrating Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Action (2015), p. 5; The State of World Population, p. 38. These obligations are laid out in previous reports of the High Commissioner, e.g., A/HRC/33/24 and A/HRC/27/20. See also OHCHR, Information series on sexual and reproductive health and rights, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WRGS/Pages/HealthRights.aspx. See article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Human Rights Committee general comment No. 29 (2001) on derogations from provisions of the Covenant during a state of emergency, paras. 4 and 11. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, para. 47; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 28 (2010) on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention, para. 11, and No. 30 (2013) on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations, paras. 2 and 8; and OHCHR, Protection of economic, social and cultural rights in conflict (Geneva, 2015), paras. 12–15.