C. Trends and Observations
20. 33 out of 83 communications sent (40 per cent) concerned women facing multiple and intersecting layers of discrimination.
21. Women belonging to national, ethnic or religious minorities or lower social castes, indigenous women, and migrant women are strongly overrepresented among reported victims. The Special Rapporteur has also acted on cases of transgender persons, who identified themselves as women and were targeted due to this sex identity choice, as well as on a case of a lesbian woman, who was reportedly murdered because of her sexual orientation.
22. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur would like to draw attention to the Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/41 on the Elimination on Violence against women in which the Commission calls on States to address the specific circumstances facing indigenous women and girls in relation to gender-based violence, especially sexual violence, arising from multiple, intersecting and aggravated forms of discrimination, including racism, paying particular attention to the structural causes of violence.
Link to full text of the report: Communications-SR Violence against women-2007-eng