A/HRC/41/33 I. Introduction 1. The present report covers the activities of the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice from the submission of its previous report (A/HRC/38/46) in May 2018 to April 2019, and also contains a thematic report on women deprived of liberty. 2. In the thematic report, the Working Group analyses the causes of women’s deprivation of liberty from a gender perspective. 1 In preparing the report, the Working Group analysed responses to a questionnaire sent out to Member States and other stakeholders and inputs from experts. 2 II. Activities A. Sessions 3. During the period under review, the Working Group held one session in Geneva and two sessions in New York. At its twenty-second session in New York (23–27 July 2018), the Working Group met with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on sexual violence in conflict, representatives of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the United Nations Population Fund and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It benefited from expert consultations on the issue of women deprived of liberty and met with experts on surrogacy. It also held a meeting with Member States and New York-based civil society organizations, as well as a public event: “20 years after the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders: States’ responsibility towards the protection of women human rights defenders”, organized jointly with civil society organizations and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. 4. At its twenty-third session in Geneva (22–26 October 2018), the Working Group held meetings with other special procedures mandate holders, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and representatives of UN-Women, the International Labour Organization and OHCHR. It also met with the Rapporteur on persons deprived of liberty from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and other experts on the issue of women deprived of liberty. 5. At its twenty-fourth session in New York (28 January–1 February 2019), the Working Group met with representatives of UN-Women, OHCHR and civil society. It held a discussion with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. It also held a meeting with Member States and had consultations with experts on women deprived of liberty. B. Country visits 6. The experts visited Honduras from 1 to 14 November 2018 (A/HRC/41/33/Add.1) and Poland from 3 to 14 December 2018 (A/HRC/41/33/Add.2). The Working Group thanks the Governments of those countries for their excellent cooperation before and during the visits. It also thanks the Government of Greece for the invitation to conduct an official visit from 1 to 12 April 2019 (the report of the visit will be presented to the forty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council). The Working Group currently has 35 pending requests for visits and encourages States to respond positively to those requests. 1 2 Owing to word limit restrictions, the present report does not contain full references. A version of the report with full references and a bibliography for each section is available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/WomenDeprivedLiberty.aspx. Responses to the questionnaire are available on the website of the Working Group. 3