A/HRC/26/38 relations. The adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, in 1999, and the subsequent jurisprudence thereunder further reinforce the Committee’s position that violence against women equates to discrimination based on sex, which disproportionately affects women. It is important to note that these developments do not explicitly articulate violence against women as a human rights violation in and of itself. 24. Regarding the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in its general comment No. 2 (2007) on the implementation of article 2 of the Convention by States parties, the Committee against Torture addresses the issue of State responsibility to act with due diligence with regard to violence against women more specifically, where “State authorities or others acting in official capacity or under colour of law, know or have reasonable ground to believe that acts of torture or illtreatment are being committed by non-State officials or private actors and they fail to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish such non-State officials or private actors” (para. 18) in compliance with the Convention. The Committee applies this principle to States parties’ failure to prevent and to protect victims from gender-based violence, such as rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and trafficking. While it may be argued that the Convention against Torture can serve as a tool for addressing violence against women, the Committee has so far only defined rape as torture, without explicitly addressing other forms of violence against women. 25. Violence against women in conflict situations is covered in greater depth by other international treaties, including the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto, which focus on, inter alia, rape, sexual exploitation and forced pregnancy. The 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also covers certain aspects of violence against women, including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity, which constitute “crimes against humanity” and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. CEDAW recently adopted general recommendation No. 30 (2013), which provides further guidance on States parties’ obligations with regard to women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations. D. Resolutions and declarations 26. In their resolutions on violence against women, several United Nations bodies call upon States to exercise due diligence to prevent and investigate acts of violence against women and girls and to punish the perpetrators.12 States are broadly called upon to develop civil and criminal measures to address offender accountability; to ensure victim safety; and to provide redress and justice measures that victims can access effectively. 27. Between 1994 and 2005, the Commission on Human Rights adopted 12 resolutions relating to the integration of the rights of women into the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, and to the elimination of violence against women.13 Over the years, the resolutions of the Commission on Human Rights have reflected an unequivocal articulation of violence against women as a human rights issue: the principle of the continuum of violence is recognized at both the temporal and spatial levels; practices constituting violence against women are articulated more expansively; proposed actions to eliminate violence are more detailed; and the causes and consequences call for a nuanced understanding of the intersection of violence with other systems of subordination and 12 13 8 See, for example, General Assembly resolutions 64/137 and 65/187, and Human Rights Council resolution 14/12. See Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/45 and subsequent resolutions on women.