A/HRC/RES/17/11
girls and provide protection and support to women and girls who have been subjected to
violence, and that failure to do so violates and impairs or nullifies the enjoyment of their
human rights and fundamental freedoms;
3.
Recognizes that effective protection requires comprehensive, integrated,
coordinated multisectoral approaches involving multiple stakeholders, including women’s
organizations, religious and community leaders, youth, men and boys, victim service
workers and advocates, law enforcement personnel, the judiciary, corrections officials and
forensic scientists, as well as legal, health and education professionals, and that such
responses should avoid re-victimization, be empowering to the victim, be evidence-based
and culturally sensitive, and integrate the specific and differentiated needs of women and
girls who face multiple, intersecting and aggravated forms of discrimination;
4.
Emphasizes that women should be empowered to protect themselves against
violence and, in this regard, stresses the need for legal and policy measures that promote the
full enjoyment by women and girls of all human rights by eliminating discrimination
against women, promoting gender equality, empowering women and promoting their full
autonomy, including with regard to land, property, marriage and divorce, child custody and
inheritance, and to promote equal access to literacy, education, skills training and
employment opportunities, political participation and representation, credit, agricultural
extension, adequate housing, just and favourable conditions of work, and business and
leadership skills training;
5.
Underscores that States have the primary responsibility for protecting women
and girls facing violence and, in this regard, urges States:
(a)
To enact and, where necessary, reinforce or amend domestic legislation and
other measures to enhance the protection of victims, including, where appropriate, by
providing for the use of testimonial aids in criminal proceedings to avoid re-victimization
and access to legal representation, and to ensure that such legislation or measures conform
with relevant international human rights instruments and international humanitarian law;
(b)
To take measures to investigate, prosecute, punish and redress, including by
ensuring access to adequate, effective, prompt and appropriate remedies, the wrongs done
to women and girls subjected to any form of violence, whether in the home, the workplace,
the community or society, in custody, or in situations of armed conflict;
(c)
To implement their treaty obligations addressing the human rights of all
women and girls and to withdraw reservations to treaties which are incompatible with the
object and purpose of the specific treaties, and further encourages States to consider
ratifying or acceding to all human rights treaties, including, as a matter of priority, the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the
Optional Protocol thereto;
(d)
To take all appropriate measures to amend or repeal existing laws or to
modify legal or customary practices that sustain the persistence and tolerance of violence
against women and girls;
(e)
To develop and, where necessary, strengthen policing systems and judicial
procedures to provide adequate protection for women who have been subjected to violence,
including by ensuring conducive environments for women and girls to report acts of
violence against them, timely and thorough investigation of all allegations of violence,
effective and victim-sensitive collection and processing of evidence, especially forensic
evidence, effective protection of victims and their families from acts of retaliation, respect
for the privacy, dignity and autonomy of all victims, as well as necessary victim protection
measures, such as restraining or expulsion orders and adequate witness protection;
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