E/2006/27 E/CN.6/2006/15 (a) Consideration of all communications, including the replies of Governments thereon, if any, with a view to bringing to the attention of the Commission those communications, including the replies of Governments, which appeared to reveal a consistent pattern of reliably attested injustice and discriminatory practices against women; (b) Preparation of a report, based on its analysis of the confidential and non-confidential communications, which would indicate the categories in which communications were most frequently submitted to the Commission. 6. The Working Group noted that a number of communications of a general nature had been submitted, as opposed to communications alleging specific cases of discrimination or injustice against individual women. It also noted that several communications had brought to light the issue of harmful traditional practices, including female genital mutilation, and their adverse effects on the sexual and reproductive health of women, including possible HIV/AIDS transmission. 7. The Working Group discerned the following categories in which communications had most frequently been submitted to the Commission: (a) Abuse of power, arbitrary detention and inhumane treatment in detention and lack of due process; (b) Sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, committed by law enforcement personnel, private individuals and military personnel, as well as the failure to provide adequate protection to victims, carry out thorough investigations and bring perpetrators to justice promptly; (c) Legislation which discriminated against women in the areas of family, health, employment, social benefits, voting rights and the right to own and inherit property; (d) Other forms of violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual harassment, forced and early marriage and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation, with a lack of due diligence by States adequately to investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators and/or a lack of specific legislation in those areas; (e) Abduction of women and girls, particularly vulnerable groups such as internally displaced women, by parties in armed conflict, forcible confinement, harassment of women belonging to minorities, including sexual abuse and ill-treatment of young women and girls, and denial of access to justice; (f) Torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including of trafficked women; (g) Differential application of punishments in law based on sex, including cruel, inhuman or degrading forms of punishment; (h) The impact of armed conflicts, in particular on women and girls, with resulting heightened exposure to, inter alia, sexual violence, torture, abduction and arbitrary killing, and the failure of States to abide by international humanitarian law, as well as international human rights law, and 52