Strengthening Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Responses to Violence Against Women (2010/15)

Reaffirming the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women and, in particular, the determination of Governments to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women, Reaffirming also the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, as well as the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled „Women 2000: gender, equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century‟,and the declarations adopted at the forty-ninth and fifty-fourth sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women,

Recognizing that the term „women‟, except where otherwise specified, encompasses „girl children‟,

Reaffirming the obligation of all States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, and reaffirming that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human rights instruments and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination of all forms of violence against women,

Stressing that States have the obligation to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, including women and girls, and must exercise due diligence to prevent and investigate acts of violence against women and girls and punish the perpetrators, eliminate impunity and provide protection to the victims and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Emphasizing the importance of preventing violence against migrant women through the implementation, inter alia, of measures aimed at combating racism, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance,

Deeply concerned that all forms of discrimination, including racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination and disadvantage, can lead to the targeting or particular vulnerability to violence of girls and some groups of women, such as women belonging to minority groups, indigenous women, refugee and internally displaced women, migrant women, women living in rural or remote communities, destitute women, women in institutions or in detention, women with disabilities, elderly women, widows, women in situations of armed conflict, women who are otherwise discriminated against, including on the basis of HIV status, and women
victims of commercial sexual exploitation,

Greatly concerned that some groups of women, such as migrant women, refugees and women in detention, in situations of armed conflict or in territories under occupation, might be more vulnerable to violence,

Recognizing that women‟s poverty and lack of empowerment, as well as their marginalization resulting from their exclusion from social policies and from the benefits of sustained development, can place them at increased risk of violence and that violence against women impedes the social and economic development of communities and States, as well as the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals,

Reaffirming its resolution 52/86 of 12 December 1997, in which it adopted the Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,

Recalling its resolutions 61/143 of 19 December 2006, 62/133 of 18 December 2007, 63/155 of 18 December 2008 and 64/137 of 18 December 2009 on the intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women,

Recalling also the Bangkok Declaration on Synergies and Responses:Strategic Alliances in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, adopted at the Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in which Governments recognized that comprehensive crime prevention strategies could significantly reduce crime and victimization and urged that such strategies

General Assembly resolution 60/177, annex.be developed at the local, national and international levels and that they, inter alia, take into account the Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime, and emphasized the importance of promoting the interests of victims of crime, including taking account of their gender,

Taking note of Human Rights Council resolution 11/2 of 17 June 2009, entitled „Accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women‟,

Recalling the inclusion of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as well as the recognition by the ad hoc international criminal tribunals that rape can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide or torture,

Expressing deep concern about the pervasiveness of violence against women in all its forms and manifestations worldwide, and reiterating the need to intensify efforts to address that challenge,

Recognizing that effective and integrated criminal justice responses to violence against women require close cooperation among all key stakeholders, including law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, victim advocates, health professionals and forensic scientists,

Stressing the importance of a comprehensive, well-coordinated, effective and adequately resourced response by the United Nations system to all forms of violence against women,

Recalling the joint dialogue of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on addressing violence against women through legal reform, held in New York on 4 March 2009 in the framework of the fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women,

Recalling also Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice decision 17/1 of 18 April 2008, in which the Commission requested the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to convene an intergovernmental group of experts with equitable geographical representation, in cooperation with the institutes of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme network, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, to review and update, as appropriate, the Model Strategies and Practical Measures,

See attached document for Operative Paragraphs and Annex on Updated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.