A/HRC/37/36 I. Introduction 1. On 13 June 2017, pursuant to its resolution 6/30, the Human Rights Council convened its annual full day of discussion on the human rights of women. The discussion was divided into two panels: the first focused on the theme “Accelerating efforts to eliminate violence against women: engaging men and boys in preventing and responding to violence against girls”; the second, on “Women’s rights and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development: health and gender equality”. 2. The webcast of the panel discussions is archived and can be reviewed at http://webtv.un.org. II. Accelerating efforts to eliminate violence against women: engaging men and boys in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls 3. The first panel discussion was opened by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Minister for Equal Opportunities and Nordic Cooperation of Denmark, Karen Ellemann, who gave a keynote speech. The panel was moderated by the Brenda Strafford Chair in the Prevention of Domestic Violence, University of Calgary, Canada, Lana Wells. The panel comprised the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dubravka Šimonović; the co-Chair of MenEngage Alliance and founder of Men’s Action for Stopping Violence against Women, Abhijit Das; youth activist at Curious Minds, Francis Oko Armah; and masculinities technical adviser at ABAAD Resource Center for Gender Equality, Anthony Keedi. A. Statement by the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights 4. In her opening remarks, the Deputy High Commissioner emphasized that genderbased violence against women and girls was one of the most prevalent and widespread human rights violations, which affected one third of all women and girls. She noted that the rates of such violence escalated in fragile settings and in the contexts of crisis and conflict. Although gender-based violence against women had direct and indirect physical and health consequences for victims, the Deputy High Commissioner pointed out that such acts were much more than a mere altercation, but also an expression of power and a source of fear in the lives of women and girls. The looming threat of violence from men in positions of power drove a climate of fear and intimidation, restraining freedom of movement and even freedom of dress. The fear, threat and reality of violence influenced the ability of women to make daily choices that most men took for granted with regard to marriage, education, employment, or participation in public life. 5. The Deputy High Commissioner also emphasized that intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination also affected women and girls, and that those women and girls were disempowered based on age, ethnicity, social and migratory status, poverty, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. Women and girls facing multiple forms of discrimination were particular targets of intimate and public violence. She stated that international human rights standards guaranteed the equal enjoyment of rights for all, in both public and private domains, but remained an unmet promise for millions, while half the world population lived under a shadow of the fear, threat, or reality of attack against their physical and mental integrity. She also stated that such violence against women and girls amounted to cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment; it was a manifestation of discriminatory norms that established and reinforced current concepts of masculinity and femininity. She stressed that any practice that depended on attacks on the physical and mental integrity of a person, based on power and domination, was an unacceptable violation. Violating the rights of girls under the cover of marriage or union was not a cultural practice but an attack on the integrity of a culture; a rite of passage to adulthood 2