A/71/398 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dubravka Šimonović, submits the present report pursuant to General Assembly resolution 69/147. In section II, she summarizes the activities carried out since her previous report to the General Assembly, up to July 2016. In section III, she provides an update on the consultations that she led with regional mechanisms and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the adequacy of the international framework on violence against women. In s ection IV, she addresses the topic of femicide, or the gender-related killing of women, and proposes the establishment at the global, national and regional levels of a “femicide watch” and observatories on violence against women. II. Activities A. Country visits 2. The Special Rapporteur visited South Africa from 4 to 11 December 2015 (see A/HRC/32/42/Add.2) and Georgia from 15 to 19 February 2016 (see A/HRC/32/42/Add.3). She thanks the Governments of those countries for their cooperation before and during the visit. She also thanks the Governments of Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria and Israel, which have accepted her requests to visit. B. Reports to the Commission on the Status of Women and to the Human Rights Council 3. On 14 March 2016, the Special Rapporteur participated in the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. She presented an oral statement in which she outlined her priorities for the mandate and, at the invitation of the Commission, made concluding remarks at the end of the examination of the review theme on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. She also participated in a number of side events during the session. 4. In June 2016, she submitted her first report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/32/42). In that vision-setting report, she outlined her priorities for the mandate on which she intended to focus during her tenure and highlighted that she would also focus on the issue of violence against women in politics. She also participated in a number of side events during the session. C. Participation in conferences and consultations 5. The participation of the Special Rapporteur in conferences and consultations for the period from August 2015 to March 2016 is outlined in her report to the Human Rights Council in June 2016 (A/HRC/32/42). 6. At the invitation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur attended its 157th regular session, held in Washington, D.C., from 7 to 9 April 2016. She participated as an independent expert in a hearing relating to the follow-up on the report of the Commission on missing and murdered 16-16456 3/24