A/HRC/23/17 E/CN.6/2013/8 setting up new criminal investigation guidelines and crime registration systems, grantees aim at creating institutional environments that can truly address women’s needs. For example, a programme led by the International Rescue Committee is working to combat impunity and promote access to fair and timely justice in Sierra Leone. The Committee has provided financial and technical assistance to the police in Sierra Leone in the conceptualization and dissemination of the country’s first standard operating procedures for the investigation of sexual and domestic violence offences. The procedures will improve the consistency and effectiveness of procedures for documenting, investigating and prosecuting sexual and domestic violence nationwide. The Committee was also an instrumental partner in the passing of the Sexual Offences Act by the national parliament of Sierra Leone. The Act provides a more consistent and comprehensive legal framework for the prosecution of a wide range of sexual crimes, including rape, sexual assault and sexual exploitation and is currently awaiting the signature of the President to be passed into law. It is anticipated that the law will create the legal framework for a more consistent and effective investigation and prosecution of sexual crimes, regardless of the victim’s age or relationship to the perpetrator. Once the bill has been signed into law, the Committee will join other stakeholders in ensuring that the law is disseminated in Sierra Leone through a range of public education and training activities supported by the Trust Fund. The initiative builds on and scales up an earlier programme supported by the Trust Fund and the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, demonstrating the importance of strong and sustained partnerships. The replication of the programme in other countries where the Committee is present is also being planned. 26. The Trust Fund supports several programmes aimed at establishing and/or strengthening referral mechanisms. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a United Nations country team programme implemented jointly by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in close collaboration with the Government, is building lines of communication and coordination between entities and both the local and State levels with the goal of establishing an effective referral mechanism for use by key stakeholders. The eight targeted municipalities have committed resources to ensure its sustainability. The programme has also contributed to the development and adoption of local plans and programmes on the prevention of gender-based violence by local authorities in 13 municipalities, which are provided with funding allocations through the national gender action plan. The target referral mechanisms have also developed and adopted their own plans for the prevention of violence in their local communities as a sign of long-term commitment to eliminating violence against women and girls. 27. Other grantees of the Trust Fund focus on strengthening the implementation of protection orders and criminal investigations of gender-motivated killings of women. In Mexico, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for the Right to Free Choice) is establishing a standardized protocol for the criminal investigation of cases of murder and forced disappearance of women, which will serve as a model for state-level Attorneys General. In partnership with the National Citizens’ Observatory on Femicide, the grantee has developed the first draft protocol for the criminal investigation of cases of femicide in Mexico City. The protocol will be replicated in other states in the country. By the end of 2012, 11 of the 17 Mexican States that had codified femicide had made use of the minimum guidelines for 12-64357 9