A/HRC/26/38 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 23/25, by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo. The activities of the Special Rapporteur, since her previous report to the Council up to March 2014, are summarized in section II. Developments in the United Nations regarding violence against women, its causes and consequences over the past approximately 20 years are discussed in section III. II. Activities A. Country visits 2. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur requested invitations to visit Afghanistan, France, Honduras, Nigeria, the Sudan, South Sudan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 3. The Special Rapporteur visited India, from 22 April to 1 May 2013 (A/HRC/26/38/Add.1); Bangladesh, from 20 to 29 May 2013 (A/HRC/26/38/Add.2); Azerbaijan, from 26 November to 5 December 2013 (A/HRC/26/38/Add.3); and the United Kingdom, from 31 March to 15 April 2014. The Special Rapporteur thanks these Governments for their cooperation. B. Reports to the General Assembly and the Commission on the Status of Women 4. In October 2013, the Special Rapporteur submitted her third written report to the General Assembly (A/68/340), in which she examined the issue of violence against women in custodial settings and highlighted the strong link between violence against women and women’s incarceration, prior to, during and after incarceration. 5. In March 2014, the Special Rapporteur participated in the fifty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. She presented an oral statement on her activities and convened two side events on global developments in the elimination of all forms of violence against women over the past two decades. III. Twenty years of developments within the United Nations and a reflection on the continuing challenges1 A. Introduction 6. Prior to, and during, the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1975 to 1985, the issue of violence against women in general, and more specifically domestic violence, was high on the agenda of women’s rights activists. Advocacy at the World Conferences on 1 The Special Rapporteur would like to thank Corey Calabrese, Naureen Shameem, Lucia Noyce, Erin Jardine, Maithilli Pradhan, Nina Anderson, Claire Malcolm and Helen Griffiths for their research assistance. 3