A/HRC/38/47 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 32/19. In accordance with the mandate’s priorities (see A/HRC/32/42), the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dubravka Šimonović, analyses online violence and violence facilitated by information and communications technology (ICT) against women and girls from a human rights perspective. II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur 2. On 5 October 2017, the Special Rapporteur, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 69/147, presented her thematic report to the Assembly on the adequacy of the international legal framework on violence against women (A/72/134), in which she proposed the formulation of a global implementation plan on violence against women. 3. From 12 to 23 March 2018, the Special Rapporteur participated in the sixty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held in New York, at which she delivered a statement,1 and attended several high-level panel discussions on issues relating to violence against women. Within the context of the mandate’s initiative on strengthening and institutionalizing cooperation between international and regional independent mechanisms on women’s rights,2 the Special Rapporteur organized consultations and highlevel panel discussions on the themes “Institutional cooperation between global and regional independent mechanisms dealing with violence and discrimination against women” and “Fighting violence against women in politics” with the participation of the Deputy Secretary-General, the Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, two members of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, the Chair of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Rapporteur on the Rights of Women, the President of the Group of experts on action against violence against women and domestic violence of the Council of Europe and the President of the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention. 4. The Special Rapporteur and other international and regional independent mechanisms on women’s rights also held a meeting with the Secretary-General, who reiterated his support for the mandate’s initiative on institutionalizing cooperation between independent international and regional mechanisms on violence against women. 5. On 4 November 2017, in Banjul, the Special Rapporteur participated in the sixtyfirst ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and delivered a statement3 at the launch of its Guidelines on Combating Sexual Violence and its Consequences in Africa. 6. On 6 November 2017, in Washington D.C., the Special Rapporteur participated in an event convened by the Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention on the theme “International and regional mechanisms on violence against women”. On the following day, she attended a high-level event on “Regional and international Mechanisms for a comprehensive approach addressing violence against women and girls”, with the participation of the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States. 1 2 3 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/SR/StatementCSW12March2018.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/CooperationGlobal RegionalMechanisms.aspx. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Statement by Dubravka Simonovic, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women at the 61st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights”, press release, 4 November 2017. 3