A/HRC/14/22 73. In many settings, for a tort claim to be initiated, financial means and a defendant who has money to pay for the damage are necessary. Other obstacles that women encounter when trying to obtain damages against perpetrators through courts include: statutes of limitations; inter-spousal and intrafamilial tort immunity rules; overly strict or inadequate rules and interpretations of the causality link in the assessment of harms; and inadequate evidence standards and procedures for quantifying damages which may have a negative disparate impact on women (such as limiting compensation to economic loss, setting caps on non-economic loss or measuring loss solely or primarily based on the loss of future earning capacity measured through statistical evaluation). Insurance schemes may not be effective either because basic coverage is usually restricted to compensatory damages — which often do not cover intentional torts or exempt claims against spouses — or because claims have to be brought during the term of the policy. 74. In Europe, States that have ratified the European Convention on the Compensation of Victims of Violent Crimes are obliged to provide compensation for victims and their dependants when such compensation cannot be fully obtained by other means and when the offender cannot be prosecuted or punished. The Convention does not include a specific gendered perspective of the crimes considered and only covers material damages and not non-economic loss. Since loss of earnings for women tends to be lower, leaving out noneconomic loss might affect women more negatively than men. 75. Some States, in their legislation and jurisprudence, and some regional human rights courts have started to recognize State responsibility for providing reparation to victims in cases of lack of due diligence, while other States have begun to endorse the categories of reparations of international human rights law. Others are compelling public officials to do more systematic research on the effects of violence against women and the efficiency of the measures to prevent and repair them. 76. At the international level, a groundbreaking development is introduced in the Statute of the International Criminal Court, in which it is provided that the Court may award reparations other than restitution to victims, namely, restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. In addition, the Rome Statute provides for the establishment of a trust fund for the benefit of victims of crimes and their families, within the jurisdiction of the Court. The Trust Fund provides for the possibility for victims and their families to receive assistance separate and prior to a conviction from the Court, through the use of resources raised through voluntary contributions. Since the Court has not awarded any reparations as yet, it is too early to assess the degree to which it has protected women’s right to reparations. (a) The Inter-American Court of Human Rights 77. In November 2009 the Inter-American Court ruled in what will undoubtedly become a landmark case in the field of reparations for women: Cotton Field v. Mexico.13 This case concerns the abduction, killing and sexual violence of two minors and a young woman by non-State actors in 2003, and the subsequent failure of the State to diligently investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators and to treat the relatives of the deceased in a dignified way. The Court found that the State of Mexico violated the rights to life, freedom, personal integrity, access to justice and legal remedies and the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of sex under the American Convention. It also considered that Mexico had infringed its obligations by failing to apply due diligence to prevent, investigate and impose penalties for violence against women or its duty to provide adequate responses in the legal system to punish and eradicate violence against women, thereby infringing the Inter- 13 GE.10-13109 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Cotton Field v. Mexico, 16 November 2009. 19