A/HRC/56/51 reproductive health rights.3 The Working Group issued press releases, both individually and jointly with other mandate holders, the human rights treaty bodies and regional mechanisms.4 D. Other activities 7. The members of the Working Group undertook numerous other activities in their official capacity, including participation in regional consultations and expert meetings and engagements with stakeholders. In particular, the Chair presented an oral report to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session and addressed the Commission on the Status of Women at its sixty-eighth session, for the first time during the opening segment. Moreover, members of the Working Group contributed to the seventy-seventh ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Gender Apartheid Inquiry conducted by a parliamentary panel in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association, several discussions on advancing gender equality, organized by UN-Women, and a high-level panel discussion on gender apartheid in Afghanistan, organized by the Malala Fund for Girls’ Right to Education, the International Peace Institute and the Atlantic Council. The Working Group continued to chair the Platform of Independent Expert Mechanisms on the Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against Women until 29 February and convened various meetings of the Platform during its sessions. II. Thematic analysis: escalating backlash against gender equality and urgency of reaffirming substantive equality and the human rights of women and girls A. Introduction 8. In the present report, the Working Group takes stock of its past work, focusing on the past six years, and analyses the main lessons learned. In addition, it presents its vision for the future. It is grateful for the responses to the questionnaire that it sent to all the Permanent Missions of Member States to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva and to other stakeholders on lessons learned, challenges and opportunities relating to the work of the mandate. Similarly, it wishes to thank all participants in the consultations held in connection with the preparation of the present report. 1. Conceptual framework 9. In fulfilling its mandate, the Working Group has consistently addressed the elimination of discrimination against women and girls in all fields – civil, political, economic, social and cultural – from the perspective of States’ obligations to respect, protect and fulfil women’s and girls’ human rights. Mindful of the fact that women and girls are not uniform but diverse and distinct in many ways, the Working Group has considered and addressed the intersection of sex- and gender-based discrimination with other grounds of discrimination. At the same time, it has emphasized that there are shared aspects of discrimination against women and girls that persist in all cultures, albeit with differing levels of intensity and impact.5 It has reaffirmed and prioritized the obligation of States to remove obstacles to and 3 4 5 GE.24-07559 All communications are available at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TmSearch/TMDocuments. See https://www.ohchr.org/en/latest?field_content_category_target_id%5b162%5d=162&field_entity_tar get_id%5b1314%5d=1314&field_published_date_value%5bmin%5d=&field_published_date_value %5bmax%5d=&sort_bef_combine=field_published_date_value_DESC. A/HRC/38/46, para. 11. 3