A/HRC/17/26 7. On 28 February 2011, the Special Rapporteur delivered an oral statement to the Commission on the Status of Women. In her statement, the Special Rapporteur highlighted that the due diligence obligation of States entails ensuring gender equality frameworks, promoting attitudinal change, proactively ensuring women’s participation in decisionmaking and undertaking programmes with a strong focus on promoting women’s empowerment and agency. D. Joint report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo 8. Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 13/22, the Special Rapporteur contributed to the third joint report of seven United Nations experts on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was submitted to the Human Rights Council at its sixteenth session (A/HRC/16/68). The Special Rapporteur expressed concern at the pervasive violations of the human rights of women and girls that continue to be perpetrated with impunity, as illustrated by the sexual violence perpetrated by armed men against hundreds of women and girls in Walikale territory in August 2010. While regretting the lack of progress in implementing the recommendations of the previous joint reports, the Special Rapporteur joins her peers in reiterating the call on the Human Rights Council to consider once again the establishment of a special procedures country-specific mandate. E. Regional consultations 9. The Special Rapporteur actively engaged with civil society organizations through her participation in regional consultations. In September 2010, together with the independent expert in the field of cultural rights, she attended a regional consultation in Nepal which focused on women, culture and human rights. In January 2011, she took part in an Asia Pacific Regional Consultation in Malaysia on the theme of multiple forms of discrimination, which was followed by a national consultation. F. Other activities 10. The Special Rapporteur participated in a number of conferences, workshops and side-events on numerous topics related to her mandate. She took part, in March 2010 and February 2011, in two conferences in Madrid around the theme of femicides which gathered representatives from Governments, regional and international organizations, civil society and academia. She also participated in a legal colloquium on the applicability of international human rights treaties to the promotion and protection of the human rights of migrant domestic workers in the European Union that took place in Brussels in May 2010. She took part in a panel discussion on elimination of discrimination against women and in a seminar on traditional values and human rights, held in Geneva in September and October 2010 respectively. Additionally, she gave a number of speeches on violence against women at different events, including at an international conference on violence against women in Iceland in October 2010, and at various universities. 11. The Special Rapporteur also participated in the ECOSOC special event on Human Rights in Humanitarian Emergency Response: A contribution from the Special Procedures mechanisms in July 2010. She hosted two side-events on the subject of reparations to women who have been subjected to violence – the topic of her first thematic report to the Human Rights Council – on the margins of the 14th session of the Human Rights Council and the 65th session of the General Assembly. 5