OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
Elimination of violence against women
Commission on Human Rights Resolution: 2004/46
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Charter of the
United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human
rights instruments, and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination
of violence against women,
Reaffirming the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in June 1993
by the World Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23) and the Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women adopted by the General Assembly in its
resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993,
Recalling the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted in September 1995
by the Fourth World Conference on Women (A/CONF.177/20/Rev.1, chap. I), follow-up
action by the Commission on the Status of Women on violence against women, and the
outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000:
gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”,
Recalling also all its previous resolutions on the elimination of violence against
women, in particular its resolution 1994/45 of 4 March 1994, in which it decided to appoint a
special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, and all
General Assembly resolutions relevant to elimination of violence against women, and in
particular welcoming Assembly resolutions 58/185 of 22 December 2003 entitled “In-depth
study on all forms of violence against women” and 58/147 also of 22 December 2003 entitled
“Elimination of domestic violence against women”,
Recalling further Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000
on women, peace and security, and acknowledging the relevance of the study of the
Secretary-General entitled Women, Peace and Security submitted pursuant to Security
Council resolution 1325 (2000), the study by the United Nations Development Fund for
Women entitled Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment of the
Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Women’s Role in Peace-Building, and the important
work done on this issue, most recently by the forty-eighth session of the Commission on the
Status of Women on women’s equal participation in conflict prevention, management and
conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-building,
Reaffirming the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and prosecute
those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,
Recalling the inclusion of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (A/CONF.183/9), which affirms that rape,
sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms
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