A/HRC/31/57 women and girls are guaranteed and protected at all stages of the legal processes, inter alia through legal aid, support programmes and witness protection. 1. Honour-based violence 59. Violence committed by family members against relatives in order to protect the family’s “honour” is a common practice around the world. In some communities honour is equated with the regulation of female sexuality and with women’s conformity with social norms and traditions. Women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are the most common victims of honour-based violence, which targets female sexuality and autonomy and individuals’ actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (A/61/122/Add.1 and Corr.1). 60. Women and girls tend to be at risk of honour violence or killing for engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage, choosing partners without their family’s approval or behaving in other ways that are considered immoral; Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons are also targeted (A/HRC/29/23). Honour killings have been documented in South-East Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East and affect 5,000-12,000 women each year.37 States’ failure to prevent honour-based violence contravenes their obligations to combat and prevent torture and ill-treatment. This includes failure to grant asylum to persons facing the risk of honour violence in their countries of origin.38 2. Female genital mutilation 61. Female genital mutilation has severely negative health consequences, including risk of death; has no documented health benefits; causes severe stress and shock, anxiety and depression; and has long-lasting, negative health consequences including higher risks of post-partum haemorrhage and other obstetric complications. 62. The practice constitutes torture or ill-treatment (A/HRC/7/3) and must be prohibited in accordance with, inter alia, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (art. 5). Domestic laws permitting the practice contravene States’ obligation to prohibit and prevent torture and ill-treatment, as does States’ failure to take measures to prevent and prosecute instances of female genital mutilation by private persons. The tendency towards “medicalization” of female genital mutilation does not in any way make the practice more acceptable. States’ indifference or inaction provides a form of encouragement and de facto permission for the practice to take place and go unpunished. The Special Rapporteur notes that in many cases, the perpetrators of female genital mutilation include the victim’s parents. In this context, prosecution and the imposition of sanctions, including imprisonment, must result from a nuanced determination that takes into account the best interest of the child. 3. Child and forced marriage 63. A forced marriage occurs without the full and free consent of at least one of the parties or where at least one party is unable to end or leave the marriage, including as a result of duress or intense social or family pressure. Child marriages involve at least one party under 18 years of age. Seven hundred million women alive today were married before the age of 18, and 250 million before the age of 15. 39 These harmful practices occur in 37 38 39 Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, statistics and data. European Court of Human Rights, application No. 28379/11, D.N.M. v. Sweden, judgement of 27 June 2013. United Nations Children’s Fund, Ending Child Marriage: Progress and Prospects (2014). 17