A/HRC/10/31 page 8 contributing to various forms of violence. The Plan of Action for 2005 and the Strategic Management Plan for the period 2006–2007 put gender and women’s rights at the core of the work of the Office. While the Women’s Human Rights and Gender Unit established to this end in 2006 remains small, it has focused on legal analysis, advocacy and development of tools in selected key areas. As a contribution to the Secretary-General's campaign to eliminate violence against women, my Office sponsored and provided the main legal analytical contribution to the “Seeking justice” conference, held in September 2008 together with the non-governmental organization Medica Mondial, with participants from 26 mainly conflict and post conflict countries to examine the impact and appropriateness of transitional justice with respect to women. The legal analyses have also served as the basis for training sessions and briefings for several Governments on the implementation of Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008). 25. My Office has provided guidance and assistance to intergovernmental, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to facilitate the integration of women’s rights and a gender perspective. We organized two discussions on laws that discriminate against women, on 4 April and 9 June 2008, and contributed to a Government-led discussion on the subject together with members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, on 24 October 2008. We also facilitated three interactive discussion panels on gender and women’s rights during the eighth and ninth sessions of the Council, on the questions of violence against women, maternal mortality as a human rights issue, and the integration of a gender perspective into the Council’s work. 26. OHCHR country offices have been systematically integrating gender into their work. In addition, an office-wide gender evaluation will be undertaken and a high-level OHCHR reference group has been created to guide the process of further mainstreaming activities. D. Combating impunity and prevention of genocide 27. The issue of combating impunity is critical to the realization of human rights, as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. I believe that national and international measures must be taken to secure the right to the truth, the right to justice, the right to reparation and other guarantees of non-recurrence. 28. There have been advances in addressing impunity through developments in international law and practice. In this respect, I would highlight the major prosecutions of sexual violence as war crimes; the recognition of the incompatibility of amnesties that lead to impunity with the duty of States to punish serious crimes under international law; the clarification of States’ obligations to combat impunity for serious violations of economic, social and cultural rights; and the recognition of the need to ensure broad public consultations, including with victims, in the design and implementation of measures for combating impunity. However, much still remains to be done, particularly at the national level, to shore up accountability for serious violations. 29. Courts, police, parliaments and inspection and oversight bodies, such as national human rights institutions, play an instrumental role in the fight against impunity. OHCHR has developed special tools for the training of judges, lawyers and prosecutors, and carried out several technical