A/HRC/12/24 page 15 H. The right to physical security 43. For many people, the simple act of “relieving oneself” is a risky affair. Women and girls especially are vulnerable to attack when they must walk a long way to access sanitation facilities or when they are forced to defecate in the open. In addition, women without access to sanitation often defecate under the cover of darkness in order to ensure a minimum of privacy, but at considerable risk to their physical security. 44. Protection of physical integrity is at the core of human rights, and must also be taken into account when considering sanitation. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights protects the right to security of person,56 and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women argues that violence against women, in the absence of due diligence on the part of the State, is a form of discrimination based on sex and is thus a violation of human rights, including violence committed by private actors.57 The Convention on the Rights of the Child also provides that States must protect children from all forms of violence.58 In the World Report on Violence against Children, it was specified that “in locations such as shanty towns and refugee camps, particular emphasis [must be] placed on creating safe routes to communal water collection, and to bathing and toilet facilities”.59 I. Prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment 45. The lack of access to sanitation can also be tantamount to inhuman or degrading treatment in certain circumstances, especially in the context of detention. In a 2005 report focused on water, sanitation, hygiene and habitat in prisons, the International Committee of the Red Cross highlighted that “waste water and refuse disposal is often the most intractable sanitation problem in places of detention. A large proportion of the diseases observed among the inmates of such establishments is transmitted by the faecal-oral route”.60 46. The Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture have regularly expressed concern about unsatisfactory conditions of detention, including poor sanitation, in their concluding observations.61 The Special Rapporteur on torture has expressed concern about sanitation in his country missions,62 as has the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.63 56 Art. 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 57 A/47/38(SUPP). 58 Art. 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 59 Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, independent expert for the Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, “World Report on Violence against Children”, p. 324 (2006). 60 “Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Habitat in Prisons”, International Committee of the Red Cross (2005), p. 58. 61 See, e.g. CCPR/C/HND/CO/1 (Honduras), at para. 15; CCPR/CO/84/THA (Thailand), para. 16; CCPR/C/UKR/CO/6 (Ukraine), para. 11; CCPR/CO/82/BEN (Benin), para. 17;