OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
Elimination of violence against women
Commission on Human Rights resolution 2003/45
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women and other international human rights instruments, and that its elimination is an integral part of
efforts towards the elimination of violence against women,
Reaffirming the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted in June 1993 by the World
Conference on Human Rights (A/CONF.157/23) and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 48/104 of 20 December 1993,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the elimination of violence against women, in particular its
resolution 1994/45 of 4 March 1994, in which it decided to appoint a special rapporteur on violence against
women, its causes and consequences,
Noting all General Assembly resolutions relevant to elimination of violence against women,
Recalling the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted in September 1995 by the Fourth
World Conference on Women (A/CONF.177/20, chap. I), follow-up action by the Commission on the Status of
Women on violence against women and the outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly,
entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”,
Recalling also Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and
security, and acknowledging the relevance of the study of the Secretary-General entitled Women, Peace and
Security submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), and UNIFEM’s recent study entitled
Women, War and Peace: The Independent Experts’ Assessment of the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and
Women’s Role in Peace-Building,
Welcoming the significant work throughout the world over the past decade to eliminate violence against
women and girls as reflected in the final report submitted by the current Special Rapporteur on violence against
women, its causes and consequences (E/CN.4/2003/75 and addenda), which gives an overview of the work done
and is a possible reference for and valuable contribution to future work in this area,
Reaffirming the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and prosecute those responsible for
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,
Recalling the inclusion of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the Rome Statute of
the International Criminal Court (A/CONF.183/9), which affirms that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution,
forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence constitute, in defined circumstances,
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