shelters for victims. Others considered the issue of violence against women within the context of human rights violations. They supported resolution 1993/46 of the Commission on Human Rights, in which it decided to consider the appointment of a special rapporteur on violence against women at its fiftieth session, the integration of women’s rights into the mainstream of human rights and the need to work with other mechanisms of the United Nations system and the European Economic Community. Those proposals should be taken into account in the report being prepared by the Secretary-General on measures to eradicate violence against women in the family and society and the fact that those issues also required the full attention of, and active monitoring by, the Commission on the Status of Women. 9. Several representatives expressed their concern over the situation of women in the former Yugoslavia based on the results of the investigation and findings of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in the territory. They strongly condemned the practice of rape and abuse of women and children, and suggested that the Commission on the Status of Women should take firm action. They emphasized that such mass rape constituted a war crime that required action by an international tribunal. They further expressed support for Security Council resolution 808 (1993), by which the Council had decided that an International tribunal should be established for the prosecution of persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991, as well as for any initiative taken by the Commission on the Status of Women in investigating those cases and in preparing long-term action-oriented plans and programmes for the social and psychological rehabilitation of women victims. While emphasizing the new developments taking place to combat violence against women, particularly the steps taken towards the adoption of the draft declaration on the elimination of violence against women, many representatives indicated that a reversion to barbarism was taking place, as reflected in the abuses perpetrated against women by the use of systematic sexual violence as a weapon of war and as a means of "ethnic cleansing". Violence against migrant women workers 10. With regard to violence against migrant women workers, several representatives stated that the enjoyment by women of human rights had not been fully realized in view of the existing unequal power relations between women and men. That was reflected, inter alia, in the high incidence of violence against women, and the abuses and acts of violence committed against women migrant workers. It was emphasized that the problems faced by migrant women workers in certain countries had not been able to attract international attention and that women, lured by promises of a better life in a foreign country, often ended up in a situation whereby they suffered mental, physical and sexual harm at the hands of employers in the receiving countries. In most cases, failing to obtain redress under the local legal system, they had no choice but to await deportation. 11. It was further stated that socio-economic compulsions and the allurement of a better life were the chief factors motivating the migration of workers. The inherent vulnerability of job-seeking women made them easy targets for exploitation in trafficking and for other kinds of maltreatment. It was stressed also that the primary responsibility for creating safeguards against the exploitation of migrant workers in general, and of women workers in particular, rested with the host countries, and that any unilateral corrective actions that might be initiated by a sending country might provoke retaliatory action that could be counterproductive. One representative suggested some of the immediate issues that could be addressed by the countries, such as the need to institute a regulatory mechanism in the recipient countries to give proper -58-