A/71/398 24. During the thirtieth session of the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur invited all other stakeholders, including States, non -governmental organizations, other special procedures mandate holders and treaty bodies, national human rights institutions and members of academic institutions, to send their views and input in response to a call for submission in that regard on her official web page. 4 After receiving their responses, a comprehensive assessment of the adequacy of an international framework and action needed on violence against women can be made. IV. Thematic focus: modalities for the establishment of femicide or gender-related killings watch A. Introduction: the call for the establishment of a femicide watch 25. The Special Rapporteur has defined femicide, or the gender -related killing of women, as the killing of women because of their sex and/or gender. It constitutes the most extreme form of violence against women and the most violent manifestation of discrimination against women and their inequality. 5 26. The issue of femicide has received serious attention since the establishment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. It is examined systematically during country visits. In 1995, the Special Rapporteur presented a thematic report on violence in the family to the Commission on Human Rights, in which it was highlighted that the dominance of a familial ideology entrenched women’s roles as wives and mothers and impeded them from gaining access to non-traditional roles and exposed women who did not fit within or ascribe to traditional sex roles to gender -based hate crimes. The Special Rapporteur emphasized that such an ideology legitimated violence against women, including honour killings and other forms of femi cide (see E/CN.4/1999/68). In 2002, the Special Rapporteur presented a thematic report on cultural practices in the family that were violent towards women, referring to honour killings, and noted that those types of crimes were carried out by husbands, fathers, brothers or uncles, sometimes on behalf of tribal councils (see E/CN.4/2002/83). The Special Rapporteur organized an expert meeting on the gender-motivated killing of women in New York in 2011 in order to consolidate and build on national, regional and international expertise with regard to the manifestations and root causes of and State responses to gender -motivated killings of women, discuss policy, legal and institutional challenges at the national, regional and international levels and identify good practices and lessons learned in that regard in various regions (see A/HRC/2016/Add.4). The 2012 thematic report of the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council was focused on the issue of the gender-related killing of women (see A/HRC/20/16). 27. The gender-motivated killing of women is a clear violation of women’s rights, including the right to life, freedom from torture and to a life free from violence and discrimination. It is a global phenomenon that takes place in both the private and public spheres and results from, among other things, intimate partn er violence, armed conflict, dowry disputes and the protection of family “honour”. The gender - __________________ 4 5 10/24 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/InternationalLegalFramework.aspx . For the purpose of the present report, the terms “femicide” and “gender -related killing” are used interchangeably. 16-16456