A/HRC/7/6 page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. In my capacity as Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, I hereby submit my second report to the Human Rights Council. In Chapter II of the report, I summarize my activities in 2007; in Chapter III, I discuss indicators to measure violence against women and State responses towards ending such violence.1 2. I draw the attention of the Council to the addenda to the present report. Addendum 1 contains summaries of alleged human rights violations related to violence against women, its causes and consequences, which were brought to the attention of Governments concerned, and Government responses. Addendum 2 is a report on my mission to Algeria; addendum 3, on my mission to Ghana, and addendum 4, on that to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; in addendum 5, I discuss indicators on violence against women, upon which the present report is built.2 II. ACTIVITIES A. Fact-finding missions 3. In 2007, I visited Algeria (21 to 31 January), Ghana (7 to 14 July), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (16 to 27 July) at the invitation of the Governments concerned. 4. I will carry out official missions to Saudi Arabia in February 2008 and later to Tajikistan. I have also made requests to the Governments of Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to visit those countries. B. General Assembly 5. On 25 October, I addressed the Third Committee of the General Assembly. In addition to informing the Assembly of the findings contained in my 2006 mission reports and my preliminary observations from the country visits I carried out in 2007, I focused on the ways in which culture-based discourses and paradigms are used to deny women equality in the enjoyment of their rights or reduce violence against women to the cultural domain. Today, culture is used as a tool of new forms of oppression of women, whether in its orientalist or occidentalist guise. Such approaches present culture as static, homogeneous and apolitical, overlooking its diverse and ever-changing character. I emphasized that compromising women’s rights is not an option; the challenge before us is to respect our diverse cultures while developing strategies to resist oppressive practices in the name of culture and to uphold universal human rights standards while rejecting ethnocentric rulings. I also called on the Assembly to encourage stronger coordination among all United Nations mechanisms designed to promote the advancement of women. 1 2 I extend my gratitude to Rights and Democracy for their support through a grant. I thank Professor Liz Kelly, at London Metropolitan University, with the support of Rebecca Davenport, Lorna Kennedy and Miranda Horvath, for her research on the indicators, as contained in addendum 5.