A/HRC/11/6 page 27 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 81. Violence against women is a violation of the right to life and to personal security but also of a whole range of basic economic and social rights. Yet the differential treatment and implementation of the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on Civil and Political Rights remains a major barrier greatly limiting Government and non-State actor efforts to achieve the full and equal realization of women’s human rights in order to prevent VAW from occurring in the first place. 82. Against this backdrop the present report has examined the interconnections between the current global political economic order and women’s enjoyment of their human rights, in particular the implications for VAW; arguing that economic and social rights are essential in enhancing women’s capabilities and creating enabling conditions, such that women do not bear the brunt of globalization and economic crisis disproportionately, and can effectively avoid/resist the risk of violence. 83. While competitive globalization has created new opportunities for some groups of women, it has disadvantaged others, who have entered the workforce under insecure and unregulated conditions, thus creating new risks and vulnerabilities to abuse and exploitation. At the same time, globalization has undermined State capacity for enforcement and the provision of public goods and services. This has resulted in a return to community-based enforcement and survival systems, which have not only intensified women’s workload in order to compensate for the erosion of crucial public services and entitlements but also subordinated women to increasingly conservative cultural discourses that challenge the universality of rights and equality of women. 84. The feminization of migration, along with feminization of the labour force, two important outcomes of globalization, hold new risks and vulnerabilities as well as opportunities for women’s empowerment. But neoliberal policies that fail to attend to the basic social and economic entitlements of individuals and families make violence a more likely outcome for women than their empowerment. Restrictive immigration policies focused on national security and a narrow construal of economic interests often limit the options of migrant women workers for safe and independent survival in an alien environment. The challenge lies in creating the guarantees for women to migrate safely and with dignity.93 85. The current financial crisis, which clearly reflects the inherent instabilities of unregulated markets, offers a crucial opportunity for Governments and international institutions to invest in public services and infrastructure to create jobs, improve productivity and revive economic demand. Such investment, if well designed, has the potential to expand women’s economic opportunities and enhance livelihood security. The State, no doubt, is not the only authority to be held accountable for violations of women’s human rights. Sovereignty in the new global order must be understood as the responsibility of nation States, as well as the shared responsibility of the international community at 93 Varia, loc. cit. (note 82 above).