A/HRC/23/50 encouraging a higher percentage of fathers to take parental leave. This demonstrates a significant cultural change in society’s views of gender roles, which is itself a culmination of decades of responsive social policies.33 Good practices regarding gender-sensitive parliaments are found in some Western European and other States that have changed the scheduling of parliamentary session to allow a work-life balance for Members of Parliament who have parental responsibilities. 3. Violence against women 64. Violence against women in all its forms, whether in the private or the public space, undermines women’s capacity to effectively engage in political and public life. 65. Stigmatization, harassment and outright attacks have been used to silence and discredit women who are outspoken as leaders, community workers, human rights defenders and politicians. Sexual harassment against female political candidates has been reported as a tactic to discourage women from exercising their right to vote and run for elections.34 Women defenders are often the target of gender-specific violence, such as verbal abuse based on their sex, sexual abuse or rape; they may experience intimidation, attacks, death threats and even murder by community members. Violence against women defenders is sometimes condoned or perpetrated by State actors, including through police harassment of female demonstrators.35 66. The Internet has become a site of diverse forms of violence against women, in the form of pornography, sexist games and breaches of privacy. For women who engage in public debate through the Internet, the risk of harassment is experienced online, for example, an anonymous negative campaign calling for the gang rape of a woman human rights defender, with racist abuse posted in her Wikipedia profile.36 Female ICT users have publicly protested about sexist attacks.37 67. Domestic violence is public as well as private in its debilitating impact on women. It can also be used directly as a form of punishment by resentful husbands or other family members against wives or female relatives who become leaders in their community. 68. In 2012, recognizing the importance of eliminating violence against women in public and political life, the General Assembly, in its resolution 66/130, called for an environment of zero tolerance for violence against women elected officials and candidates for public office. In the Latin American and Caribbean region, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women explicitly recognizes the right of women to be free from violence in both the public and the private spheres and the impact that violence can have on civil, political and economic, social and cultural rights.38 In this region, there are examples of legislation prohibiting gender-based harassment and violence against a woman candidate as well as pressure on a female candidate’s family.39 In the African region, the African Commission on Human and 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 See the background report on Western Europe and North America (footnote 23). IACHR, Road to Substantive Democracy (footnote 6), paras. 110-111, 125. See A/HRC/16/44. APC submission (footnote 27), seventh page. See, among others, Vanessa Thorpe and Richard Rogers, “Women bloggers call for a stop to ‘hateful’ trolling by misogynist men”, The Observer, 6 November 2011. Available from www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/05/women-bloggers-hateful-trolling. Elizabeth Abi-Mershed, “What does the [IACHR] system have to offer as a whole?”, presentation to the Working Group. Elizabeth Salguero Carrillo, “Political violence against women”, The World of Parliaments Quarterly Review, No. 36 (2009). 15