A/69/368 23. Due process rights are recognized under international law 15 but, in practice, are often not extended to women who are victims of gender-based violence. For example, in some countries, women are unjustly detained without due process rights as a means to protect them from threatened violence. In addition, women human rights defenders, including those who advocate for the elimination of violence against women, are often the target of arbitrary arrests and due process violations. Despite the existence of policies aimed at protecting the right to humane and dignified treatment of persons deprived of liberty, 16 female detainees and prisoners are especially vulnerable to gender-based violence. 24. Violence against women violates the right to free association and expression in a variety of harmful ways, 17 while restrictions on association and expression entrench the continued presence of violence. A former Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression has stressed that the inability of women to exercise association and expression rights freely, without fear of violence, severely undermines the realization of all human rights (E/CN.4/2001/64, para. 75). The use of flogging and other forms of corporal punishment is usually linked to the control and limitation of freedom of association, expression and movement. The punishment usually has a collective dimension and is public in character, so as to serve a social objective, namely influencing the conduct of other women. 18 The rights to freedom of association and expression are integral to the right to political participation, 19 and restrictions on women’s association and expression rights prevent women from fully exer cising their participation rights. The Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice has noted that stigmatization, harassment and outright attacks have frequently been used to silence and discredit women who are outspok en as leaders and politicians (A/HRC/23/50, para. 65). 25. Violence against women often manifests itself in ways that violate women ’s right to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. 20 The use of threats of violence to force women from minority religious groups to convert to a different faith directly undermines women’s freedom of conscience and religion. In addition, minority women in some communities have been threatened with violence for expressing their religious beliefs openly. Furthermore, targeted harassment of women wearing religious garments fosters an environment that threatens the right of women to practice their religion freely. __________________ 15 16 17 18 19 20 8/21 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arts. 10 and 11; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 15; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 14-16. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 5; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 7. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arts. 19 and 20; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 7; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 19 and 21. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Stop threatening women with flogging, UN experts warn Sudan”, 6 November 2013, available from www.ohchr.org. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 21; Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, arts 7 and 8; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 25. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 18; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 18 and 27. 14-60186