States have the primary obligation to investigate and prosecute crimes of sex...

States have the primary obligation to investigate and prosecute crimes of sexual violence. That requires that they criminalize each recognized crime — rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence of comparable gravity. It is not sufficient to just have those crimes on the books. Female victims of sexual violence must be provided with equal access to justice, which requires substantive rights to be recognized and women and girls to be encouraged to exercise those rights. Measures must be adopted to encourage victims and witnesses to testify against perpetrators and to protect those who do so.