A/HRC/56/51 awareness about the restrictions faced by women human rights defenders and have even achieved the release of at least two of them from prison. (d) Working Group’s sessions 65. The Working Group has continued to use its sessions as an opportunity to engage with States, civil society organizations and other mechanisms working on women’s and girls’ human rights in an effort to strengthen collaboration, establish synergies and seek their contribution to the preparation of its thematic reports. 66. To facilitate access to its sessions for stakeholders outside Geneva, the Working Group has increasingly used online tools and held two sessions at the regional level, in Addis Ababa and Bangkok. It has also created a microsite that includes graphic, summarized and user-friendly versions of its thematic reports.82 (e) Other tools 67. The Working Group has used public statements to sustain efforts at the international, regional and national levels directed at strengthening women’s and girls’ human rights. It has continued to make use of amicus briefs to offer national courts expert advice on issues of domestic law that are directly related to States’ international human rights obligations to eliminate discrimination against women and girls. The responses to the Working Group’s questionnaire testify to the usefulness and impact of interventions of this kind. In one country, the Working Group’s intervention contributed to the decriminalization of abortion; in another, it contributed to the reinsertion into formal education of girls who had been expelled from school due to pregnancy; in yet another, it contributed to ensuring justice for women who had been arbitrarily detained because of their sex work.83 68. The Working Group has continued to develop guidance documents, formerly known as position papers, on certain themes, with a view to promoting greater conceptual clarity and filling any protection gaps left by underdeveloped interpretation of standards. Over the past six years of work, the Working Group has issued a position paper on gender equality and gender backlash and guidance documents on men’s accountability for gender equality, on eliminating discrimination against sex workers and, earlier in 2024, on the draft articles on prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, which included the recommendation that gender apartheid be included as a crime against humanity.84 69. Furthermore, the Working Group has contributed to various international and regional processes by providing written and/or oral inputs, including, for example, on the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190), draft general recommendation No. 40 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on World Food Security Voluntary Guidelines on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment in the context of Food Security and Nutrition and the draft directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on violence against women and domestic violence, and by participating in trainings and consultations with a broad range of actors. 70. The Working Group has continued to contribute to the dialogue among States within the framework of the Commission on the Status of Women by contributing formally to the Commission’s general discussions. Moreover, the Working Group is a member of the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on the Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against Women85 and chaired the Platform in 2023. Within that framework, it joins forces with the other United Nations and regional independent expert mechanisms that have a mandate related to women’s and girls’ human rights to curb rollbacks and advance gender equality. 82 83 84 85 GE.24-07559 See https://unworkinggroupwomenandgirls.org/. The Working Group’s submissions to national courts are available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-women-and-girls/submissions-courts. All position papers and guidance documents can be accessed, respectively, from https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-women-and-girls and https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-women-and-girls/resources. See https://www.ohchr.org/en/edvaw. 15