A/HRC/7/3 page 26 of particular concern to women.92 The network of partners should include women’s rights groups and relevant academic and research institutions. Further, social care centres and psychiatric institutions should be included in the visits. He also recommended that monitoring/fact-finding teams be composed in a gender-inclusive manner (including female doctors) and that all its members be trained to deal with sexual violence and other sensitive gender-specific issues. Fact-finders and monitors need to be able to ask the right questions using gender-sensitive language and to assess the psychological trauma that comes with violence, in particular sexual violence. Also, to the extent possible, fact-finding should pay attention to the private sphere: whereas it would not be feasible to visit private homes to assess whether domestic violence occurs, an effort can be made at accessing sources that would know about domestic violence, trafficking, female genital mutilation and other forms of “private” torture and ill-treatment of women. In such a scenario, fact-finding should include interviews with victims at shelters to assess the prevention and protection gaps, and medical institutions should be consulted. ----- 92 For instance, discrimination in law; legal grounds which create impunity for violence against women; the existence of domestic violence legislation; anti-trafficking legislation; legislation against traditional harmful practices; criminalization of rape/spousal rape; legal norms relating to abortion, prostitution, etc.; and the quality of these laws.

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents