Human Rights

Human Rights Council: 8th session: Rights of Women: Violence against women panel discussion: Statement by New Zealand and Canada

5 June 2008

I have the honour to make this statement on behalf of Canada and New Zealand. We warmly thank all panellists for their contributions.

Canada and New Zealand strongly endorse the Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women and the comprehensive follow-up General Assembly resolution on this issue (A/ RES/61/143).

We would welcome the panellists’ views on the proposal that the Human Rights Council develop an action plan to combat violence against women as follow-up to the Secretary-General’s study and in the context of the Secretary-General’s campaign to “UNite to End all Violence against Women”.

Any such action plan would need to contain measurable action steps and be clearly in sync with existing efforts and projects underway within the UN system, including those of ECOSOC, the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN Interagency Taskforce on VAW. This is essential to ensure effective and coordinated responses at the national level.

The Human Rights Council could:

• Identify ways to overcome obstacles States may face in effectively exercising due diligence, in particular, to prevent, investigate and prosecute such acts and to provide relief for victims.
• Prioritise a regular assessment of the extent to which the work of the special procedures, the universal periodic review, thematic working groups, relevant special session outcomes and resolutions have addressed violence against women;
• consider how to progress the Special Rapporteur’s work on indicators to measure the scope and incidence of violence against women in order to formulate more effective responses to such violence in all its forms;

We would welcome the panellists’ views on other elements that could be included in a Council action plan to combat violence against women.

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