A/69/368 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 67/144. The activities of the Special Rapporteur since her previous report to the Assembly (A/68/340) are summarized in section II. Violence against women as a barrier to the effective exercise of citizenship and the continuing challenges in the quest for its elimination is discussed in section III. II. Activities A. Country visits 2. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur requested invitations to visit the Bahamas, Egypt, Libya, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, South Sudan, the Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic. Earlier invitation requests were reiterated to the Governments of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Israel, South Africa and the State of Palestine. 3. The Special Rapporteur visited India from 22 April to 1 May 2013 (A/HRC/26/38/Add.1), Bangladesh from 20 to 29 May 2013 (A/HRC/26/38/Add.2), Azerbaijan from 26 November to 5 December 2013 (A/HRC/26/38/Add.3) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 31 March to 15 April 2014. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Governments of those countries for their cooperation. 4. She hopes to receive favourable responses from the Governments of the Bahamas, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Israel, France, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. B. Reports to the Commission on the Status of Women and to the Human Rights Council 5. In March 2014, the Special Rapporteur participated in the fifty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. She delivered an oral statement on her activities and convened two side events on global developments on the elimination of all forms of violence against women over the past two decades. 6. In June 2014, the Special Rapporteur submitted her fifth report to the Human Rights Council, in which she examined the issue of 20 years of developments within the United Nations in the field of violence against women and the continuing challenges and she convened a side event to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the mandate. C. Other activities 7. The Special Rapporteur also participated in a number of conferences and meetings over the past year, at the invitation of State and non -State actors. 14-60186 3/21