The ICJ’s Senior Legal Adviser on women’s human rights participated in a panel discussion on ‘Gains, gaps and challenges in addressing violence against women’, convened on 10 June 2014 in the margins of the Human Rights Council’s 26th regular session in Geneva.
The event was co-sponsored by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Permanent Missions of Canada and Chile and was moderated by Jane Connors, Chief of the OHCHR Special Procedures Branch. Panelists included Rashida Manjoo, Special Rapporteur on violence against women; Her Excellency Elisa Goldberg, Ambassador of Canada; Her Excellency Marta Maurás Peréz, Ambassador of Chile; and Leah Hoctor, ICJ Senior Legal Adviser.
The ICJ’s intervention focussed on remaining challenges, including the lack of prompt and effective investigations into allegations of violence against women (VAW); systemic failures in some States’ implementation of their due diligence obligations; and a series of disconnects at the international level pertaining to the link between VAW and other forms of discrimination and rights violations that women face, the lack of a holistic conceptualisation and treatment of VAW, and the insufficient integration of legal and normative progress in the discussions and approach of international fora.