WUNRN
The issue of the Due Diligence
Standard as a Tool for the Elimination of VAW, and State AND Non-State Actors,
continues to be prominent. At this time, with international and country
instruments on Violence Against Women, the UN Secretary-General's Report on
Violence Against Women, the S-G's Database on Violence Against Women, the 16
Days Campaign on Violence Against Women, the International Day on Violence
Against Women, and multiple initiatives throughout the world to reduce and
end Violence Against Women, WUNRN re-posts the UN Special Rapporteur on
Violence Against Women Report 2006 on the Due Diligence Standard as a Tool for
the Elimination of Violence Against Women - State AND Non-State Actors.
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Excerpt from the Summary of the
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women 2006:
"Under the due diligence obligation, States have a duty to take positive action to prevent and protect women from violence, punish perpetuators of violent acts and compensate victims of violence.
However, the application of due diligence standard, to date, has tended to be State-centric and limited to responding to violence when it occurs, largely neglecting the obligation to prevent and compensate and the responsibility of non-State actors."
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Additional Excerpts:
30 Both customary and conventional international law establish that States have due diligence obligations for preventing, responding to, protecting against and providing remedies for acts of violence against women whether such acts are committed by State or non-State actors. What is less clear is the content of generalized obligations of due diligence, that is, those that go beyond specific individuals or groups of women at known risk of violence, and the manner in which compliance with these obligations may be assessed and monitored.
58. The quest for such a vision continues to confront diverse challenges.[i][i] While a comprehensive analysis of these is not intended here, three main areas are highlighted: (a) the public/ private dichotomy; (b) the resurgence of identity politics based on cultural specificity, challenging State authority from below; (c) the emergence of translational power blocks with the right to command global governance, challenging State authority from above. Thus, international law, which has traditionally centred on the State as its primary subject is now confronted with other powerful actors.
59. One of the main
obstacles to the protection of women’s rights has been attributed to the role
of public/private dichotomy in international human rights law, which was
conventionally premised on the liberal, minimalist conception of the
State. This reflected the hierarchical
relations experienced by men in the “public” sphere, leaving the hierarchical
associations in the “private” sphere off limits to State intervention. This normalized the use of violence in the
privacy of the home. “Such a division of
spheres, by ignoring the political character of power unequally distributed in
family life, does not recognize the political nature of the so-called private
life. Such a division of spheres clouds
the fact that the domestic arena is itself created by the political realm where
the state reserves the right to choose intervention”.
69. The world economy is being radically restructured in economic activity and governance. The cross-border activities of transnational corporations and the new legal regimes that frame these activities have reconfigured the territoriality and sovereignty associated with the nation State. Therefore, the State is no longer the only site of normativity - or the unique subject of international law.[ii][i] Other actors, such as multinational corporations, financial institutions, intergovernmental organizations and international NGOs, as well as illegal networks, are emerging as spheres of influence whose responsibilities vis-à-vis human rights standards have not been subject to scrutiny.
76. Therefore, in exercising due diligence to effectively implement human rights law - in order to prevent, protect, prosecute and provide compensation with regard to violence against women - States and other relevant actors must use multiple approaches in intervening at different levels: the individual, community, State and the transnational arena.
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ADVANCE EDITED VERSION |
Distr. E/CN.4/2006/61 Original: ENGLISH |
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-second session
Item 12 (a) of the provisional agenda
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