A/HRC/17/22 preventative factors included belonging to an association, healthy parenting, gender equality in the family, and education. Political economy theory is helpful to identify the causal mechanisms through which these factors affect violence against women, and therefore to inform policy interventions. 41. Ms. True indicated that violence against women should be addressed in any economic development scenario, since it had considerable health-care, employment, productivity and criminal justice costs. Preventing violence against women and promoting economic development could be mutually reinforcing. She stressed, however, that women’s rising social and economic status was also associated with increased violence against women, explaining that this could be the result of increasing economic activity being perceived as a “threat” to existing male entitlements. Ms. True concluded that every policy should be scrutinized to see if it would increase or reduce violence against women, whether at local, national or international level. 42. Concerning law reform, Ms. Abdul Aziz suggested that there was a need to consider the goals and objectives expected from reforming the law. She said that when the law is not enforced properly, for instance by the police, the State sends a contradictory message to society. Ms. Abdul Aziz insisted on the necessity of providing for an enabling environment to enforce the legislation and obtain the support of the various authorities, such as the police or religious leaders. 43. Ms. Abdul Aziz added that, as violence against women is often an issue that involves private or non-State actors, applying the principle of due diligence is key. She stated that when linking the issue of violence against women to State responsibility, it was not possible to limit this to simply using criminal law. She affirmed that criminal law also needs to be customized to address violence against women. Criminal law is adequate for one-time offences, but she wondered how to deal with cases of continuous harm, such as domestic violence. She explained that the due diligence principle is applied to the inaction of the State, because when a State decides not to act, it does not stay neutral, but takes a stance for which it should be accountable. Ms. Abdul Aziz concluded that using law reform to lead changes was a positive measure, but it was not sufficient and must be accompanied by the creation of an enabling environment to garner the support of the society’s various structures and institutions. 44. Ms. Medina Rosas noted that the judgment in the Cotton Field case was important because the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had applied all the contributions of previous work regarding the duty to prevent. The plaintiffs’ legal team had also tried to ensure that the court would request Mexico to set up a full programme to prevent violence against women. The court had said that the laws and specific institutions already existing in Mexico were insufficient in terms of prevention. Yet, she stated, one year after the issuing of the judgment, the Mexican State had only published the judgement through the media and had just recently adopted a budget line for the compensations ordered in the ruling. According to the panellist, the promises to create databases, a memorial, training, protocols, counselling, etc. had not been acted upon. She also claimed that little had been done in terms of coordination with the various authorities and to fight the persisting impunity. In 2010, in Ciudad Juárez and the State of Chihuahua, no decrease in the murder rate for women had been observed. 45. Nevertheless, Ms. Medina underscored three good practices stemming from the case. She said that, despite the impunity, new victims and their relatives were still trying to obtain justice by organizing themselves and filing lawsuits, rather than trying to dispense justice themselves. She also noted that a strong network of organizations and people existed at local, national and international levels, providing for strong support without which she believed the situation would have become worse. Finally, she mentioned that a commission had been set up to assess access to justice and justice administration at the local level. 11