A/HRC/41/42 Rapporteur hopes that, going forward, more can be done to foster further collaboration between the two mandates. 2. Sustainable Development Goals and violence against women 52. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development comprises 17 transformative Sustainable Development Goals, including the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and, for the first time, in its targets 5.1 and 5.2, focus is placed on the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres. These are key human rights standards prescribed by the Convention, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur, and other independent monitoring mechanisms, should be invited to contribute more directly to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, through active participation in the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. 3. Regional treaties and their monitoring mechanisms 53. In 1994, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the Convention of Belém do Pará. This was the first international instrument on violence against women and, as it celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2019, the Convention has been ratified by 32 States. The Follow-up Mechanism to the Belém do Pará Convention was established 10 years later and operates through multilateral evaluation rounds that include an evaluation and a follow-up phase. It meets twice a year for a period of two days, which could be increased to allow sufficient time to fulfil its mandated work. To date, the system has published three hemispheric reports, as well as follow-up reports in 2010 and 2014.22 54. In 1994, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights created the Rapporteurship on the Rights of Women,23 with the initial task of analysing the extent to which laws and practices involving women’s rights in the OAS member States comply with the general obligations set forth in regional human rights instruments and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. 55. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) was adopted in 2003, came into force in 2005 and commemorated its fifteenth anniversary in 2018. To date, 49 States have signed the Protocol and 37 States have ratified it. Its implementation by States is assessed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which also monitors the implementation of numerous other regional instruments. The Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, the mandate of which was established in 1998, also plays a key role in its implementation, including by preparing reports on the situation of women’s rights in Africa.24 There is also an African Union initiative to encourage ratification of the Maputo Protocol by 2020 by all African States, which would require strengthening the monitoring mechanisms of the Maputo Protocol, either within the African Commission or by establishing a separate monitoring body. 56. In 2011, the Council of Europe adopted the Istanbul Convention, which entered into force in 2014 and has been ratified by 34 member States of the Council of Europe. The Convention is the most comprehensive international treaty on violence against women and domestic violence and provides a legally binding definition of violence against women, which it confirms as “a human rights violation and form of discrimination against women”. It also provides detailed provisions on coordinated prevention, protection, prosecution and services needed. The monitoring mechanism in charge of the implementation of the Convention consists of two bodies: the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and its Committee of the Parties. The Group held its first meeting in 2015. 22 23 24 See http://belemdopara.org/en/datos-yo-cifras/. See www.oas.org/en/iachr/women/mandate/mandate.asp. See www.achpr.org/mechanisms/rights-of-women/about/. 11