A/67/227 D. Commission on the Status of Women 7. On 29 February 2012, the Special Rapporteur submitted a written statement to the Commission on the Status of Women, in which she highlighted the need to ensure the social, cultural and economic participation and empowerment of rural women. E. Other activities 8. During the reporting period, the Special Rapporteur participated in a number of conferences, workshops and side events on topics related to her mandate. 9. On 12 October 2011, the Special Rapporteur convened an expert group meeting in New York to inform her thematic report on gender-related killings of women. 10. In June 2012, she organized a regional expert meeting in Tunis, together with the Tunisia office and North Africa office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The meeting brought together experts and academics from the region and focused on the responsibility of the State in exercising due diligence to prevent and eliminate violence against women. 11. During the twentieth session of the Human Rights Council in June 2012, the Special Rapporteur convened a side event, with the independent expert on human rights in Somalia, on women’s rights in Somalia. III. Report on violence against women with disabilities A. Background 12. Women with disabilities make up a significant part of the world’s population. According to the 2011 World Report on Disability of the World Health Organization and World Bank, it is estimated that approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population lives with some form of disability. The disability level threshold indicates that the male disability prevalence rate is 12 and the female 19.2. Based on such figures, it is clear that women with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the global population. Despite the evolution of normative frameworks concerning both the human rights of women and of persons with disabilities, the impact of the combined effects of both gender and disability have not gained sufficient attention, and violence against women with disabilities remains largely unaddressed. 13. The 2011 report to the Human Rights Council of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (A/HRC/17/26) focused on the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that contribute to and exacerbate violence against women, noting that factors such as ability, age, access to resources, race/ethnicity, language, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity and class can exacerbate the violence women experience. Although women with disabilities experience many of the same forms of violence that all women experience — when gender, disability and other factors intersect — the violence against them takes on unique forms, has unique causes and results in unique consequences. 4 12-45120