A/HRC/4/104 page 13 31. The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living has produced a series of reports on women and adequate housing (E/CN.4/2003/55, E/CN.4/2005/43, E/CN.4/2006/118). In 2005 and 2006, in accordance with Commission resolution 2003/22, the Special Rapporteur, supported by OHCHR, United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations, held a North American Regional Consultation on Women and the Right to Adequate Housing (Washington, DC, October, 2005); a Central Asia/Eastern Europe Regional Consultation on Women’s Right to Adequate Housing - the interlinkages between multiple discrimination and women’s right to adequate housing (Budapest, November 2005) and a Euro-Mediterranean Regional Consultation on Women and Housing (Barcelona, Spain, March 2006). The Special Rapporteur’s work on women and adequate housing has resulted in a wealth of information that is being prepared for publication by OHCHR. The publication will include a comparative analysis of the status of women’s right to adequate housing at the regional level and selected testimonies and case studies stemming from the regional consultations. In 2005, the Special Rapporteur made contributions to the drafting by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of general comment No. 16 on article 3 of the Covenant concerning “The equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights”. In February 2006, the Special Rapporteur continued his dialogue with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on women and adequate housing and the need for further work in this area, including the development of model questions that could be used by the Committee in its dialogue with States parties. Further, as requested by resolution 2005/25, the Special Rapporteur and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women have initiated work on the drafting of model provisions to protect women’s rights in domestic violence legislation. 32. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences considers violence against women to be a specific form of gender discrimination that is both a cause and consequence of other forms of gender discrimination. The Special Rapporteur’s report to the sixty-first session of the Commission (E/CN.4/2005/72) examined the intersections of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Her report to the sixty-second session (E/CN.4/2006/61) examined the due diligence standard as a tool for eliminating violence against women. The Special Rapporteur highlighted the need to re-examine and expand the standard, namely through the full implementation of generalized obligations of prevention and compensation, the effective realization of existing obligations to protect and punish, and the inclusion of relevant non-State actors as duty bearers in relation to responding to violence against women. The Special Rapporteur conducted fact-finding missions to the Islamic Republic of Iran, Afghanistan and Mexico in 2005 and to Turkey, the Netherlands and Sweden in 2006. In her address at the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, she emphasized that the current challenge in combating violence against women pertains to ensuring that the root causes and consequences of the problem are tackled at all levels, from the home to the transnational arena. She also highlighted the value of applying a human rights perspective to the problem. The Special Rapporteur has stressed the relevance of her work to the Commission on the Status of Women and the need to report to that body also. 33. The Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, in her report to the sixty-first session of the Commission (E/CN.4/2005/71) expressed concern at reports of marketing of women and children via the Internet or under the guise of marriage-brokering services and pen-pal clubs. She noted that the majority of victims of trafficking are women and girls trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and expressed

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